Paltry

Definition: Paltry

Paltry

Adjective

1. Not worth considering; "he considered the prize too paltry for the lives it must cost"; "piffling efforts"; "a trifling matter".

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".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "paltry" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

Note: Paltry \Pal"try\, adjective. [Comparative Paltrier; superlative Paltriest.]. (references)

Synonyms: Paltry

Improbity

Contemptible, unrespectable, abject, mean, shabby, little, paltry, dirty, scurvy, scabby, sneaking, groveling, scrubby, rascally, pettifogging; beneath one.

Inexpedience

Vile, base, villainous; mean; (paltry); injured; deteriorated; unsatisfactory, exceptionable indifferent; below par; (imperfect); illcontrived, ill-conditioned; wretched, sad, grievous, deplorable, lamentable; pitiful, pitiable, woeful; (painful).

Smallness

Adjective: small, little; diminutive; (small in size); minute; fine; inconsiderable, paltry; (unimportant); faint; (weak); slender, light, slight, scanty, scant, limited; meager; (insufficient); sparing; few; low, so-so, middling, tolerable, no great shakes; below par, under par, below the mark; at a low ebb; halfway; moderate, modest; tender, subtle.

Unimportance

Poor, paltry, pitiful; contemptible; (contempt); sorry, mean, meager, shabby, miserable, wretched, vile, scrubby, scrannel, weedy, scurvy, putid, beggarly, worthless, twopennyhalfpenny, cheap, trashy, catchpenny, gimcrack, trumpery; one-horse. not worth the pains, not worth while, not worth mentioning, not worth speaking of, not worth a thought, not worth a curse, not worth a straw; Noun: beneath notice, unworthy of notice, beneath regard, unworthy of regard, beneath consideration, unworthy of consideration; de lana caprina; vain; (useless).

Crosswords: Paltry

For a paltry five dollars all I can offer you is a mask from the discount bin. You have your choice of Richard Nixon or Bart Simpson (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

One can bear to discuss such paltry matters with a lady

If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Business

In 1999, the GDP grew at a paltry 1.4 percent and was estimated to decline further in 2000 to less than 1 percent. (references)

Even so, the market share for MPVs remains paltry compared with the U.S. last year, MPVs accounted for 2.1 percent of the British market. (references)

LAN penetration in PC-owing organizations is still at a paltry 1.56. With multiple ownership of PCs in this user group, sharing of resources (such as printers) is inevitable, which in turn will drive the usage of networking products. (references)

Economic History

Turkey

Nonetheless, foreign direct investment has totaled only $12 billion at the most since 1980, a paltry sum reflecting investor concerns about political uncertainty, inadequate regulations, stalled privatization, and troubling macroeconomic indicators. (references)

Japan

Only 267,767 foreign-made passenger cars were sold in Japan in 2000, a paltry 6.3 percent of the total market. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expressions using "paltry": measly miserable paltry ♦ paltry little inn. Additional references.

Albanian

i vogël (baby, diminutive, exiguous, Ling, little, one horse, peripheral, petit, petty, pimping, pocket-size, poky, reckling, scant, scanty, scarce, scrimpy, small, trivial, undersized), i pavlerë (bad, barren, base, catchpenny, chaffy, cheap, crummy, dud, expendable, fiddling, footling, frivolous, futile, jejune, measly, nugatory, peddling, tawdry, threepenny, trashy, vain, valueless, worthless), i parëndësishëm (dispensable, exiguous, immaterial, inconsequential, indifferent, inessential, insignificant, light, minor, minute, negligible, nugatory, one horse, petty, piddling, puny, small, small time, tenuous, tin, trivial, unessential, unimportant), i mjerë (abject, crummy, desolate, dismal, forlorn, ill fated, ill-starred, infelicitous, lowlife, miserable, penurious, pimping, piteous, sorry, unhappy, unlucky, worm). (various references)

Arabic 

‏لا قيمة له (insubstantial, nonsense, refuse), ‏حقير (abject, base, beggarly, blackguardly, cheap, despicable, dingy, dirty, frowzy, grubby, ignoble, inferior, insignificant, lousy, low, low down, lowly, mean, menial, niggling, pettifogger, petty, pip squeak, pitiable, pitiful, poor, popinjay, rotten, scabby, scaly, scoundrelly, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, servile, shabby, shoddy, slavish, slim, slushy, small minded, snide, sod, squalid, swine, tacky, trifling, ungracious, unworthy, varmint, vile, villainous, worthless, wretched), ‏تافه (banal, commonplace, contemptible, crummy, fade, fiddling, flat, foolish, footling, fractional, frivolous, frothy, good for nothing, inane, inconsiderable, insignificant, junk, light, lilliputian, little, lowbrow, measly, minute, naught, negligible, niggling, nonsensical, nugatory, null, pedestrian, petty, piddling, pimping, piteous, pitiable, platitudinous, pointless, puny, ridiculous, run of the mill, silly, slight, slim, small time, smelly, stupid, trifle, trifling, trite, trivial, trumpery, two a penny, two bit, twopenny-halfpenny, unimportant, unsavory, unsavoury, unworthy, vain, valueless, vapid, vile, worthless), ‏زهيد (cheap, piddling, poor, scanty, scrimpy, small, trivial), ‏خسيس (abject, base, contemptible, dastardly, despicable, ignoble, loon, lousy, low, lowly, mean, pooch, reptile, ruffian, scruffy, servile, shabby, shoddy, sleazy, small change, sordid, vile, villainous), ‏ردئ (bad, base, bastard, bum, coarse, common, doggie, evil, fearful, fiendish, foul, ill, inferior, nice, poor, poorness, putrid, second rate, slim, sour, tacky, tinpot, unhealthy, vicious, villainous, watery), ‏بائس (afflicted, cheerless, deplorable, desolate, devil, disconsolate, distressed, forlorn, godforsaken, hapless, heel, helpless, lamentable, measly, miserable, pathetic, penurious, piteous, pitiful, poor, poverty stricken, ratty, sad, scruffy, seedy, sickly, sordid, squalid, unfortunate, unhappy, woeful, wretched). (various references)

Bulgarian 

незначителен (cheap, dinky, fiddling, fractional, frivolous, immaterial, imperceptible, inappreciable, inconsiderable, inessential, inglorious, insignificant, least, little, mean, minor, minute, negligible, niggling, nominal, noteless, nugatory, obscure, one horse, outside, peddling, pettifogging, petty, picayune, piddling, piffling, pimping, pokey, poky, poor, potty, puerile, pygmy, rabbity, scrubby, slight, small, small time, subfusc, tenuous, third class, tiddly, trifling, trivial, two-by-four, twopenny-halfpenny, unconsidered, unimportant), нищожен (exiguous, footling, insignificant, miserable, naught, negligible, nominal, nugatory, outside, peddling, pettifogging, pygmy, shabby, trifling, trivial), низък (abject, base, contemptible, degraded, ignoble, low down, low-minded, mangy, mean, mean-spirited, miscreant, scaly, scurvy, unworthy, vile, villainous, yellow), малък (bijou, light, little, measurable, piccolo, pocket, remote, slight, slim, small, tiddly, toy, venial, young), презрян (despicable, ratty, squalid, worthless), дребен (dinky, dwarf, finical, finicking, finicky, insignificant, little, minor, niggling, peddling, petty, picayune, piddling, pimping, pokey, poky, poor, potty, puerile, puny, pygmy, rabbity, sawed-off, shabby, short, small, small time, small-scale, trifling, trivial, undersized, unimportant, venial). (various references)

Chinese 

琐碎. (various references)

Czech

ubohý (crappy, deplorable, dingy, dismal, down in the mouth, grotty, miserable, pitiable, poor, sleazy, wretched), mizerný (abysmal, bad, bleeding, bum, cheap, crappy, crummy, dismal, foul, lousy, miserable, painful, rotten, stingy, tinpot, vile, wretched), chatrný (broken, coarse, delicate, frail, jerry built, poorly, shoddy, unsound, weak). (various references)

Farsi 

چیزاشغال وناچیز, جزءی (Immaterial, Imperceptible, Inappreciative, Inconsiderable, Inconspicuous, Little, Minuscule, Minute, Negligible, Nip, Nominal, Partial, Peppercorn, Petty, Piddling, Remote, Retail, Rush, Small, Snatch, Trivial, Vain). (various references)

Finnish

vaivainen summa (paltry sum). (various references)

French

piètre, misérable, mesquin, mauvais, dérisoire. (various references)

German

dürftig (feeble, impoverished, insubstantial, lame, meager, meagre, miserable, necessitous, pathetic, penurious, penuriously, pitiable, poor, poorly, scant, scanty, sketchy, skimpily, skimpy, slender, spare, sparse, sparsely, tenuous, thinly, unsubstantial, wretched), erbärmlich (abject, abjectly, depressingly, disgraceful, disgracefully, dismal, hideous, lamentable, lamentably, meager, miserable, miserably, paltrily, pathetically, piteous, piteously, pitiable, pitiful, pitifully, poor, sordid, squalid, terrible, wretched). (various references)

Greek 

μηδαμινόσ (insignificant, minimal, nugatory, null and void, petty, piccaroon, trifling, trivial), ασήμαντοσ (fiddling, immaterial, inconsequential, insignificant, minor, negligible, niggling, nobody, nonessential, nugatory, piddling, potty, purportless, slight, trifling, trivial, unessential, unimportant), τιποτένιοσ (chaffy, measly, petty, piddling, scamp, scummy, trashy, trifling, two-penny, worthless). (various references)

Hebrew 

חסר ערך (fiddling, junk, light, picayune, pip squeak, rubbishy, trashy, two bit, twopenny half penny, vain, valueless, worthless). (various references)

Hungarian

értéktelen (barren, bum, chaffy, cheap, drossy, feckless, misbegotten, null, off-cast, pelting, punk, screwy, trashy, twopenny-halfpenny, unhelpful, unworthy, valueless, vile, worthless), rongyos (frazzled, pelting, ragged, scrubby, shabby, tattered, tatty), jelentéktelen (baubling, dinkey, dinky, exiguous, fiddle-faddle, footling, frivolous, futile, inappreciable, inconsiderable, insignificant, irrelevant, jerkwater, light, minor, minor details, negligible, niggling, nugatory, null, obscure, of no great importance, of no moment, petty, piddling, scrubby, slight, small time, tin-pot, trifling, trivial, unimportant, venial). (various references)

Indonesian

tak berharga (drossy). (various references)

Italian

ridicolo (absurd, antic, comic, comical, laughable, ludicrous, preposterous, ridicule, ridiculous, ridiculousness, risible, silly), meschino (base, beggarly, currish, mean, measly, miserable, narrow, petty, poor, scanty, shabby, small minded, sordid, sorry, wretched). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

零細 (insignificant, trifling). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

いじましい (piddling), れいさい (a tiny bit, annual festival, insignificant, regular festival, trifling). (various references)

Manx

neufeeu (hopeless, inadequate, undeserving, valueless, worthless). (various references)

Pig Latin

altrypay.(various references)

Portuguese

vil (base, caitiff, carrion, despicable, dirty, ignoble, lily-livered, lousy, low-down, low-minded, mean, nasty, nefarious, picayune, rascally, reptile, rotten, scurrilous, scurvy, servile, slavish, sneaking, sordid, ugly, vile, villainous), sem valor (bum, chaffy, hollow, inconsiderable, naught, nugatory, peddling, picayune, trashy, trifling, useless, vain, valueless, waste, worthless), reles (bush-league, cad, caddish, cheap, hard-fisted, picayune), miserável (abject, costive, dismal, evil, godforsaken, logy, meager, misbegotten, miscreant, miserable, miserly, picayune, pimping, poky, poor, rascally, scaly, scoundrel, scurvy, skinflint, sordid, squalid, wretch, wretched), insignificante (bald, fiddle-faddle, frivolous, inconsiderable, inferior, insignificant, little, mean, negligible, one-horse, petty, picayune, piddling, pimping, pitiable, pony, poor, potty, puny, scrubby, small, trifling, trivial, unimportant, wispy), desprezível (abject, beggarly, caitiff, contemptible, despicable, lily-livered, little, mean, negligible, peddling, picayune, pitiable, reptile, scurvy, trashy, unworthy, worthless). (various references)

Romanian

ticãlos (a bad egg, base, cad, canting, cur, dark, dirty, felon, foul, heel, hound, impious, kite, knave, knavish, knavishly, low-minded, mean, meanly, miscreant, perverse, picaroon, rapscallion, rascal, rascally, recreant, reprobate, ruffian, scab, scabby, scamp, scoundrel, scurvy, serpentine, shabby, skunk, sneak, sneaking, vile, villain, villainous, wretch, wretched), neînsemnat (cheap, fractional, immaterial, inconsequent, inconsiderable, indifferent, insignificant, irrelevant, light, little, minor, modest, negligeable, negligible, peddling, petty, piddling, piffling, slender, slight, small, trifling, trivial), meschin (base, basely, base-spirited, costive, hen-hearted, illiberal, little, low down, mean, mercantile, nasty, paltrily, peddling, pettily, petty, shabby, small, sneaky, sordid, stingy, trivial), mãrunt (chopping, incidental, light, loose, mincing, peddling, petty, piffling, small, tiny, trifling), josnic (abject, base, base-minded, despicable, dirty, grovelling, grubby, infamous, little, low, low-minded, mean, meanly, nasty, scurrilous, scurvy, shabby, slavish, sordid, sordidly, vile). (various references)

Russian 

незначительный (exiguous, imperceptible, importless, inconsiderable, insignificant, light, little, minor, minute, negligible, nonsignificant, of no account, of small account, outside, poky, puny, pygmy, remote, slight, small time, small-time, tenuous, trivial), ничтожный (exiguous, fiddling, lamentable, measly, naught, nominal, picayune, pitiful, poxy, twopenny-halfpenny), мелкий (dusty, fine, minute, peanut politician, pettifogging, petty, piddling, potty, shallow, shoal, small minded, small time, small-time, two-by-four), жалкий (abject, forlorn, pathetic, pimping, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, scrubby, woeful, wretched). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

tričav (baubling). (various references)

Spanish

miserable (abject, beggarly, dismal, meager, measly, miserable, moldy, mouldy, poor, sordid, squalid, twopenny, wretched), mezquino (beggarly, cheap, hard-fisted, mean, measly, miserable, penurious, petty, petty-minded, scabby, scaly, shabby, skimpy, small minded, small-minded). (various references)

Swedish

usel (abject, abysmal, bad, base, bum, cheesy, dastardly, execrable, ignoble, low, mean, miserable, pitiful, poor, shoddy, tacky, trashy, vile, worthless, wretched), lumpen (dirty, mean, shabby), futtig (cheap, derisive, derisory, footling, frivolous, futile, mean, measly, picayune, potty). (various references)

Turkish

saçma (absurd, applesauce, balls, baloney, blind, boloney, bunk, bunkum, chimerical, claptrap, cockeyed, dissemination, eradiation, fantastic, fantastical, farcical, fatuous, fiddle, fiddle-de-dee, fiddlesticks, foolish, for the birds, froth, frothy, fudge, go on, hog-wash, hooey, impertinent, inane, incongruous, inept, irrational, jabber wocky, kibosh, laugh, malarkey, nonsense, nonsensical, outlandish, pointless, poppycock, raving, rhubarb, rot, scattering, senseless, shot, shucks, skittles, small shot, smearcase, sorry, spinach, stuff, tommyrot, tosh, trash, trifling, tripe, trivial, trumpery, unreasonable, wacky, waffle, whacky), küçük (baby, bantam, child, fiddling, inconsiderable, infant, infra-, junior, kid, little, micro-, mini, mini-, minor, minuscule, nano-, not healthy, one horse, peanut, petit, petty, piddling, poky, remote, slight, small, snug, tiddly, trifling, trivial, undersized, young, younger), değersiz (cheap, despicable, footling, inferior, insignificant, jerkwater, measly, milk and water, no-account, nonvalent, non-valent, nugatory, of no worth, pitiable, punk, rubbishy, shoddy, tinpot, trashy, trivial, trumpery, two bit, valueless, vile, worthless), önemsiz (back burner, derisive, derisory, dinky, empty, fiddling, footling, immaterial, inconsequential, inconsiderable, inconspicuous, indifferent, inessential, insignificant, jerkwater, minute, negligible, no-account, non essential, nonessential, not healthy, not worth a fig, null, of no account, of no significance, of no worth, one horse, paper, peanut, peddling, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddling, poky, potty, quotidian, scrubby, secondary, slight, small, smalltime, trifling, trivial, tuppeny, unessential, unimportant, unsubstantial, worthless, yeasty). (various references)

Ukrainian

нікчемний (contemptible, futile, gewgaw, no-account, not worth a damn, piffling, punk, riff raff, scrubby, shabby, trifling, unworthy), мізерний (bare, beggarly, feeble, insignificant, miserable, naught, nominal, outside, pitiable, pokey, poky), покидьки (cast, cull, dross, offal, offscum, outcast, overcast, peltry, refuse, rejectamenta, scruff, trash). (various references)

Vietnamese 

ti tiện (blithering, caitiff, low, miscreant, small), tầm thương, nhỏ mọn; đáng khinh, không đáng kể (inconsiderable, negligible, puerile, trivial, unimportant). (various references)

Welsh

pitw (petty, puny). (various references)

contempta, contempto, contemptorum, contemptos, contemptum, contemptus, mendicum, mendicus, sordida, sordidam, sordidis, sordido, sordidos, sordidum. (various references)

Misspellings

"Paltry" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Daldry, Daltry, palrty, palty, partry, Partrych, Patley, patri, patryn, paultry, pawltry, peltre, pelty, petry, pilotari, pilty, plarty, psaltry, pulchri. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: partly, raptly.

-1 letter: aptly, lyart, party, patly, platy, typal.

-2 letters: arty, aryl, paly, part, paty, plat, play, prat, pray, rapt, tarp, trap, tray.

-3 letters: alp, alt, apt, art, lap, lar, lat, lay, pal, par, pat, pay, ply, pry, pya, rap, rat, ray, rya, tap, tar, try, yap, yar.

-4 letters: al, ar, at, ay, la, pa, ta, ya.

+1 letter: cryptal, flytrap, peartly, peytral, psaltry, pteryla.

+2 letters: abruptly, calypter, calyptra, flytraps, kalyptra, paltrily, patronly, peytrals, plastery, polarity, portably, psaltery, pterylae.

+3 letters: allopatry, allotropy, calypters, calyptras, interplay, kalyptras, operantly, painterly, palmistry, paralytic, partially, placatory, planarity, planetary, plurality, polywater, portrayal, pratingly, primality, privately, rampantly, reputably.

+4 letters: apparently, archetypal, bipolarity, capitulary, copulatory, depilatory, epistolary, hypaethral, hyperalert, impartibly, interplays, laparotomy, malapertly, multiparty, paralytics, parentally, partiality, partisanly, pastorally, paternally, personalty, phylactery, playwright, pleasantry, plutocracy, polywaters, popularity, portrayals, poultryman, pregnantly, prenatally, profitably, prototypal, pyrolysate, pyrolyzate, repeatedly, separately, spectrally, telegraphy, temporally, tropically, voluptuary.