Paltry

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  paltry \pal"try\ (p[add]l"tr[y^]), a. [Compar. {Paltrier}
     (p[add]l"tr[i^]*[~e]r); superl. {Paltriest}.] [Cf. Prov. E.
     paltry refuse, rubbish, LG. palterig ragged, palte, palter, a
     rag, a tatter, Dan. pialt, Sw. palta, pl. paltor.]
     Mean; vile; worthless; despicable; contemptible; pitiful;
     trifling; as, a paltry excuse; paltry gold. --Cowper.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           The paltry prize is hardly worth the cost. --Byron.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: See {Contemptible}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  paltry
       adj 1: not worth considering; "he considered the prize too paltry
              for the lives it must cost"; "piffling efforts"; "a
              trifling matter" [syn: {negligible}, {trifling}]
       2: contemptibly small in amount; "a measly tip"; "the company
          donated a miserable $100 for flood relief"; "a paltry
          wage"; "almost depleted his miserable store of dried
          beans" [syn: {measly}, {miserable}]
       [also: {paltriest}, {paltrier}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  148 Moby Thesaurus words for "paltry":
     Lenten, Mickey Mouse, Spartan, abject, abominable, abstemious,
     arrant, ascetic, atrocious, austere, base, beggarly,
     beneath contempt, borne, cheap, cheesy, coarse, common,
     contemptible, crummy, debased, degraded, depraved, despicable,
     dirty, disgusting, dwarfed, dwarfish, execrable, exiguous,
     flagrant, foul, fourth-class, frugal, fulsome, gaudy, gimcracky,
     grave, gross, heinous, illiberal, impoverished, inconsequential,
     inconsiderable, ineffectual, inferior, insignificant, irregular,
     jejune, lean, limited, little, low, low-class, low-down, low-grade,
     low-quality, low-test, lumpen, mangy, meager, mean, measly,
     meretricious, mingy, miserable, miserly, monstrous, narrow,
     nefarious, niggardly, obnoxious, odious, parsimonious, pathetic,
     petty, picayune, piddling, pitiable, pitiful, poky, poor, punk,
     puny, rank, reptilian, rubbishy, sad, scabby, scant, scanty,
     scrawny, scrimp, scrimpy, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy,
     second-best, second-class, seedy, set, shabby, shoddy, skimp,
     skimpy, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, small, sorry, spare,
     sparing, squalid, starvation, stingy, stinted, straitened, stunted,
     subsistence, tacky, tatty, thin, third-class, third-rate, tinny,
     trashy, trifling, trivial, trumpery, two-for-a-cent,
     two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, unchivalrous,
     ungenerous, unimportant, unmentionable, unnourishing, unnutritious,
     valueless, vile, watered, watery, worthless, wretched