MEANNESS

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extreme stinginess

Synonyms:

closeness; meanness; minginess; niggardliness; niggardness; parsimoniousness; parsimony; tightfistedness; tightness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("meanness" is a kind of...):

stinginess (a lack of generosity; a general unwillingness to part with money)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "meanness"):

littleness; pettiness; smallness (lack of generosity in trifling matters)

miserliness (total lack of generosity with money)

Derivation:

mean ((used of sums of money) so small in amount as to deserve contempt)

mean ((used of persons or behavior) characterized by or indicative of lack of generosity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being deliberately mean

Synonyms:

beastliness; meanness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("meanness" is a kind of...):

malevolence; malevolency; malice (the quality of threatening evil)

Derivation:

mean ((used of persons or behavior) characterized by or indicative of lack of generosity)

mean (characterized by malice)

mean (having or showing an ignoble lack of honor or morality)

Credits

Context examples:

It was not that he had lost his good looks, or his old bearing of a gentleman—for that he had not—but the thing that struck me most, was, that with the evidences of his native superiority still upon him, he should submit himself to that crawling impersonation of meanness, Uriah Heep.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She had seen enough of her pride, her meanness, and her determined prejudice against herself, to comprehend all the difficulties that must have perplexed the engagement, and retarded the marriage, of Edward and herself, had he been otherwise free;—and she had seen almost enough to be thankful for her OWN sake, that one greater obstacle preserved her from suffering under any other of Mrs. Ferrars's creation, preserved her from all dependence upon her caprice, or any solicitude for her good opinion.