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]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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]
WordNet (r) 2.0
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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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