Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Lacking in importance or worth. See Synonyms at trivial.
- adj. Wretched or contemptible.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Mean; worthless; despicable: as, a paltry trifle; often in a mitigated sense, of little value of consequence.
- Synonyms Despicable, Pitiful, etc. (see contemptible), insignificant, petty, miserable, wretched, trifling, trivial.
- n. A wretched, worthless trifle.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Mean; vile; worthless; despicable; contemptible; pitiful; trifling.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. not worth considering
- adj. contemptibly small in amount
Etymologies
- Probably from obsolete and dialectal paltry, trash, perhaps from Low German paltrig, ragged, from palte, rag.
Examples
“Haughty, proud, and uncompromising, though neither destitute of honor nor generosity, he despised and hated what he termed the paltry associations of herdsmen and shepherds, united with a few towns which subsisted chiefly by commerce; and instead of courting the Helvetian”
“I listened to Ebenezer Ato Sam aka Baby Ansaba on myjoyonline. com on 2nd February 2010 and I must say that he is an archetypal example of what gutter Accra are incensed over what they describe as paltry salaries and poor working conditions.”
“Let us not fag in paltry works which serve our pot and bag alone.”
“As you know, of course, the U.S. being criticized for what some called a paltry and slow response to this humanitarian crisis.”
“Boston, which was once again paltry on the power play.”
“And then, you whine and fret for what you yourself call a paltry matter!”
“Small societies of excluded lepers live miserably in paltry huts.”
“The King County Council called their paltry recommendation a "political victory" for us.”
“Purnell claims he calculated that had the Brown squirt (I refuse to call his paltry measure a stimulus) been carried out in the 1990s there would have been 300,000 fewer on the dole.”
“Chief Justice Robert called the paltry current pay, quote, "a direct threat to judicial independence.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘paltry’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Adjectives with 2 syllables that end in -y
angry, bossy, busy, chilly, cheesy, creepy, dirty, early, funny, hairy, happy, healthy and 126 more...
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Words beginning with P
peripatetic, pearlescent, perfunctory, palliate, permafrost, prosthetic, pliant, pluvious, percussion, procrastinate, progeria, prognathism and 49 more...
brtom Paltry funeral: coach and three carriages.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6 Dec 31, 2006