The optically good quality single crystals of 2-Hydroxy-1-naphthaldehyde (2H1N) were grown by vertical Bridgman method. The thermal behavior of the grown crystal was studied by thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA). The cell parameters of the grown 2H1N crystal were confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction (SXRD). The powder XRD (PXRD) was carried out to identify the crystalline planes. The nature of bonding and structure of 2H1N was analyzed using 1 HNMR and 13 CNMR. Functional groups of 2H1N crystal were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectral analysis. The optical transmittance was determined by the UV–Vis NIR spectral analysis and the grown crystal has good optical transparency in the visible region (300–900 nm). To analyze the third order nonlinear optical properties, z-scan study was carried out and the nonlinear optical parameters like refractive index (1.30 × 10 −7 cm 2 /W), absorption coefficient (0.0410 −4 cm/W) and the third order nonlinear optical susceptibility (1.90 × 10 −6 esu) was determined. The optical limiting behavior and clamping measurements of 2H1N was 37.3 mW and 1.08 mW respectively. The dielectric constant (∼12) and low dielectric loss as a function of frequency were measured to ensure the 2H1N has better optical application. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.