Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A meager monetary allowance, wage, or remuneration.
- n. A very small amount: not a pittance of remorse.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An allowance or dole of food and drink; hence, any very small portion or allowance assigned or given, whether of food or money; allowance; provision; dole.
- n. An allowance of food or money bestowed in charity; a small charitable gift or payment.
- n. A small portion or quantity; a morsel.
Wiktionary
- n. A small allowance of food and drink; a scanty meal.
- n. A meagre allowance of money or wages.
- n. A small amount.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An allowance of food bestowed in charity; a mess of victuals; hence, a small charity gift; a dole.
- n. A meager portion, quantity, or allowance; an inconsiderable salary or compensation.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an inadequate payment
Etymologies
- From Latin pietantia (Wiktionary)
- Middle English pitance, from Old French, allowance of food to a monk or poor person, from Medieval Latin pietantia, from *pietāns, *pietant-, present participle of *pietāre, to show compassion, from Latin pietās, piety; see pity. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“As he's presently unemployed, my pittance is helping keep food on the table.”
“The Overland, having in fact infinitely more prestige than cash, promised the 23-year-old author $5 for his story but delayed payment so insistently that London had to storm the office and almost literally shake the pittance from the trousers of the magazine's editor.”
“Or should be grateful for whatever pittance is tossed their general direction despite the fact no other industry "expects" this.”
“I don´t even want to consider what that 600 sf apartment on Russian Hill we sold for a pittance is worth today.”
“Does anyone else recall those wonderful pit boots you could aquire for a pittance from the miners stores during the ‘troubles’ of the 80’s?”
“The fact the allotment for transit has historically been a pittance is a matter of political ineptitude and ideology.”
“And what is worse than all, the pittance, which is rightly theirs, comes to them often in a way which, to say the least, is suggestive of charity given and received.”
“English officer with his miserable pittance, which is totally inadequate to his rank and station!”
“Then, I can't wear them, if I should take them; so they can be of no use to me: And I trust I shall not want the poor pittance, that is all I desire to keep life and soul together.”
“You call the pittance they were given to stay alive (compared to what was given to Wall Street) an "exorbitant amount of money".”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pittance’.
-
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 4087 more...
-
GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
06-13 GRE list
churlish, unswear, abnegate, abjure, state, indemnification, adumbrated, reny, abash, recondite, rescission, esoteric and 260 more...
-
The Pits
armpit, pit, pits, cockpit, pity, pithy, pit bull terrier, pit boss, pit stop, pitcher, fire pit, peach pit and 76 more...
-
slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
-
test 1
testing
-
How very mikeropological..
Basically it's just mikeropology's words, but with his username turned into an adjectivally splendid list name.
mikeropology, squoze, anthropromorphism, mullu, spondylus, goobers, hipster, burnt umber, ochre, canvas, lapizure, burnt sienna and 172 more...
-
caspermilktoast's Words
frenetic, farrago, fandango, ensemble, assay, emulsion, taut, winnow, ridonkulous, ginormous, frisson, idee fixe and 181 more...
-
Stumbled Words
A list of words that I stumbled upon while reading.
penumbra, prolix, propitious, resplendence, sepulchral, Weltschmerz, apparition, brigand, probity, chalice, paroxysm, pallor and 160 more...
-
My Revised GRE Preparation List
Words from the new GRE : This list consists mostly of words from the book Magoosh-GRE-vocab-ebook, which is one of the best vocab materials available, especially if you have started preparing one ...
alacrity, prosaic, veracity, paucity, contrite, trite, maintain, laconic, pugnacious, disparate, egregious, innocuous and 533 more...
-
Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 1008 more...
-
vorpal's Words
parabiosis, penumbra, defenestrate, portmanteau, sturm und drang, perspicacious, quixotic, copacetic, obfuscate, inveigle, shadenfreude, cloister and 349 more...
-
Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
-
mandarine's Words
antepenultimate, metonymy, synecdoche, pop, kern, inherit, clique, scrumptious, macerate, murmur, kerning, veranda and 1068 more...
-
Test-words
rarefy, occlude, bolt, lambaste, career, careen, largesse, enormity, neologism, quizzical, sibyl, euphony and 105 more...
-
p is for...
my favorite voiceless bilabial plosive.
panacea, persnickety, panache, provenance, preternatural, penumbra, perfunctory, perspicacity, potentate, pinguid, plainsong, pleonastic and 228 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pittance.
sera "An inadequate payment" Aug 13, 2007