1
2
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

3

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 El Salvador in the 1960s, Todd writes, peasants and workers joined with progressive Catholics and intellectuals to push against the country’s oligarchic rulers, known as the fourteen families.
    Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 24 Feb. 2025
  • The average Joe had to phone in their orders like some medieval peasant.
    Trent Hoerr, Forbes, 10 Jan. 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
  • On that note…being concise doesn’t mean being a total jerk either.
    Jenna Ryu, SELF, 5 Mar. 2025
  • Rockwell's Officer Dixon, a mama’s boy with a screw loose and a history of torturing Black prisoners, is a target of her ire − that is, until the actor carefully adds layers to what could be a one-note jerk. 14.
    Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 28 Feb. 2025
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
  • Responding officers found the dog, and advised the owner to take the dog in.
    cleveland, cleveland, 13 Sep. 2023
  • Police brought in hundreds of law enforcement personnel with dogs, armored carriers, horses and helicopters that circled overhead.
    Maryclaire Dale, Marc Levy and Michael Rubinkam, Anchorage Daily News, 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
  • Even the jokers, which do each have their own special ability, are quick to pick up — with their wildcard capabilities made easy to understand as they’re applied mid-round.
    Scott Robertson, Rolling Stone, 24 Dec. 2024
  • This lucky gambler had an 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king and a joker.
    Helena Wegner, Sacramento Bee, 20 Jan. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Churl.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/churl. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on churl

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!