niggard

Sparing; stinting; parsimonious.

Miserly or stingy.

It was, however, the pleasure of his niggard and unhappy fortune, that in seeking a place proper for his accommodation, he and Dapple tumbled into a deep and very dark pit, among a number of old buildings.

[H]is heart swelled within him, as he sat at the head of his own table, on the occasion of the house-warming, dispensing with no niggard hand the gratuitous viands and unlimited beer, which were at once to symbolise and inaugurate the hospitality of his mansion.

A miser or stingy person; a skinflint.

Then beautious nigard why dooſt thou abuſe / The bountious largeſſe giuen thee to giue?

All his pleasures were social; and while health and fortune smiled upon him, he was no niggard either of his time or talents to those who needed them.

A false bottom in a grate, used for saving fuel.

1833, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Godolphin It was evening: he ordered a fire and lights; and, leaning his face on his hand as he contemplated the fitful and dusky upbreakings of the flame through the bars of the niggard and contracted grate […]

1851, From a catalog of the Great Exhibition Cooking apparatus, adapted for an opening eight feet wide, by five feet high, and containing an open-fire roasting range, with sliding spit-racks and winding cheek or niggard;

To hoard; to act stingily.

Within thine owne bud burieſt thy content, / And tender chorle makſt waſt in niggarding: […]