Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MI'SER, n. [s as z; L. miser, miserable.]

1. A miserable person; one wretched or afflicted. [Obs.] Spenser.
2. A wretch; a mean fellow. [Obs.] Shak.
3. An extremely covetous person; a sordid wretch; a niggard; one who in wealth makes himself miserable by the fear of poverty. [This is the only sense in which it is now used.] No silver saints by dying misers given. Pope.