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as in miser
a mean grasping person who is usually stingy with money don't bother asking for donations at that house—the churl who lives there believes that charity begins and ends at home

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of churl The churl’s view. Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 11 July 2021 But the cartoonish executive in Episode 1 will require a Grinch-like turnaround to become anything but a clownish churl. Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Mar. 2022 Only a churl would lament the existence of these testaments to the out-of-nowhere potential of a great pop hit. Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for churl
Noun
  • In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot pursued his nation to the killing fields to create only one peasant class.
    Lynn DeWoskin Covarrubias, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Feb. 2025
  • The film opens on a peasant couple summoning their son from a farm field.
    Paige Williams, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • This ahead-of-its-time 1988 film stars Bill Murray as Frank Cross, a TV executive and self-seeking miser who receives a wake-up call from the ghosts of Christmas Past (David Johansen), Present (Carol Kane) and Future (Robert Hammond) to help straighten his mean spirit.
    Skyler Caruso, People.com, 19 Dec. 2024
  • For a more tuneful version of the Dickens tale, there’s this 1970 musical starring Albert Finney as the eponymous miser.
    Keith Phipps, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2024
Noun
  • Sorrentino may also be exorcising some conflicting feelings about his birthplace, which is portrayed as a vulgar, crude place populated by crooks and hicks and photographed like its paradise.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 7 Feb. 2025
  • In first grade, when a teacher called him a hick, Ciotti threw an inkwell at her.
    D. T. Max, The New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2024
Noun
  • With that put to bed, our attention turns back to the husbands, and all the new rumors from this season, like Lisa bringing up Shawn’s name in regards to circle jerks.
    Tom Smyth, Vulture, 29 Jan. 2025
  • Diagnosed first with Jeavons syndrome in 2018/19—a rare form of epilepsy characterized by absence seizures and eyelid jerks—a 1,000-gene epilepsy panel in 2020 revealed further health problems.
    George Monastiriakos, Newsweek, 30 Dec. 2024
Noun
  • Robert Pattinson recalls lying on live TV about seeing clown die in car explosion as a kid: 'What on Earth?' Pattinson also surprised audiences at the convention, making an unannounced appearance alongside his director.
    Jessica Wang, EW.com, 24 Feb. 2025
  • These clowns dressed as presidents appear immature and narcissistic.
    Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline, 9 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • According to LifeLine, the DeKalb shelter takes in 135 dogs a week on average.
    Jim Gaines, ajc, 13 Sep. 2023
  • Responding officers found the dog, and advised the owner to take the dog in.
    cleveland, cleveland, 13 Sep. 2023
Noun
  • Going to the Ron Burgundy–Ricky Bobby idiot well one time too many, Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a lazy, cynical longtime congressman running against a local bumpkin (Galifianakis).
    Tim Grierson, Vulture, 4 Feb. 2025
  • Carter, perhaps the most decent man to ever occupy the Oval Office, was long written off as a country bumpkin, one who perhaps unsurprisingly left office as a one-term anomaly.
    Philip Elliott, TIME, 9 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • This lucky gambler had an 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king and a joker.
    Helena Wegner, Sacramento Bee, 20 Jan. 2025
  • Variations of the game include the mahjong card in America, which is used for scoring, and eight joker tiles; in Singapore, the game is played with four extra tiles, which are decorated with animals.
    Claire Turrell, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Feb. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Churl.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/churl. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.

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