 |
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
paltry \pal"try\ (p[add]l"tr[y^]), adjective [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.
The paltry prize is hardly worth the cost. --Byron.
Syn: See {Contemptible}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
paltry
adjective
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
 |
Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |