Dictionary

niggardlily en · ADV

Etymology

From niggardly + -ly.

Meanings

1. (rare) In a niggardly manner.
   • It is the certainty of this that reconciles the Doctrinaires, and even M. Persil, to the amnesty. They will grant it, rather than have it forced upon them by M. Dupin. But they will grant it as late as possible, and as niggardlily as possible, unless the more generous sentiment of Marshal Gerard prevail. 1834 October 11, The Morning Chronicle, number 20,319, London:
   • Let us not make them help us niggardlily with clenched teeth, in a mood that might make them gloat over our reverses and our losses, as much as the enemy and his friends. 1963 April, “Indian Periodicals”, in Kedar Nath Chatterji, editor, The Modern Review, volume CXIII, number 4 (whole 676), Calcutta, page 332:
   • Japan, niggardlily endowed by nature in natural resources looks to China for supply of necessary industrial materials, selling her manufactures to China.[…]the poorer element of whom, as things stand, are only niggardlily provided for in a financial sense, the Railway Company has been tempted to offer the long-missed facility[?] to such Chinese as may be in want thereof. 1927, The Manchuria Daily News, pages 1 and 5:
   • Snea´kingly, pitifully, poorly, niggardlily. 1736, N[athan] Bailey, Dictionarium Britannicum: Or a More Compleat Universal Etymological English dictionary than Any Extant, the second edition, London: […] T. Cox:

Forms