Stingy, close, closefisted, tight, tightfisted, niggardly, parsimonious, penurious, miserly, cheeseparing, penny-pinching can mean unwilling or manifesting unwillingness to share one’s goods with others or to give to another a part of one’s possessions.
Stingy implies mainly a lack of generosity; the term is applicable whenever there is a suggestion of a mean or illiberal spirit.
Close and closefisted and tight and tightfisted usually imply stinginess of nature, but they also ordinarily suggest the power to keep a tight grip upon whatever one has acquired.
Niggardly implies the character of one who is so stingy and so closefisted that he grudgingly gives the smallest portion or amount possible; the term may refer not only to the giving or spending of money or the giving of material goods but to the provision of what would add to the comfort, happiness, or well-being of oneself or of others.
Parsimonious stresses frugality, but it suggests also niggardliness; because of this double connotation the term usually suggests not a virtue but a fault or, often, a vice.
Penurious adds to parsimonious the suggestion of a niggardliness so great as to give the appearance of extreme poverty or of excessive closefistedness.
Miserly implies penuriousness but it stresses obsessive avariciousness as the motive.
Cheeseparing and penny-pinching suggest frugality and parsimoniousness carried to the extreme.