paltry

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paltry

trashy, worthless: The prize was too paltry to justify an effort to win.; contemptible: The paltry wage that they offer is an insult.

Not to be confused with:

poultry – chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese raised for food

pal·try

(pôl′trē)

adj. pal·tri·er, pal·tri·est

1. Lacking in importance or worth. See Synonyms at trivial.

2. Very small or inadequate in amount; negligible: was paid a paltry sum for his work.

3. Marked by meanness or lack of generosity; contemptible: "I would far rather burn my whole book, than that he or any other man should think that I had behaved in a paltry spirit" (Charles Darwin).

[Probably from obsolete and dialectal paltry, trash, perhaps from Low German paltrig, ragged, from palte, rag.]

pal′tri·ly adv.

pal′tri·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

paltry

(ˈpɔːltrɪ)

adj, -trier or -triest

1. insignificant; meagre

2. worthless or petty

[C16: from Low Germanic palter, paltrig ragged]

ˈpaltrily adv

ˈpaltriness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pal•try

(ˈpɔl tri)

adj. -tri•er, -tri•est.

1. ridiculously or insultingly small: a paltry sum.

2. utterly worthless: paltry clothes.

3. mean or contemptible: a paltry coward.

[1560–70; < Low German paltrig ragged =*palter rag (compare dial. German Palter) + -ig -y¹]

pal′tri•ness, n.

syn: See petty.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.	1.	paltry - not worth considering; "he considered the prize too paltry for the lives it must cost"; "piffling efforts"; "a trifling matter" trifling, negligible worthless - lacking in usefulness or value; "a worthless idler"
	2.	paltry - 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" measly, miserable meager, meagerly, meagre, scrimpy, stingy - deficient in amount or quality or extent; "meager resources"; "meager fare"

paltry

adjective

1. meagre, petty, trivial, trifling, beggarly, derisory, measly, piddling (informal), inconsiderable He was fined the paltry sum of $50.
meagre considerable, valuable

2. insignificant, trivial, worthless, unimportant, small, low, base, minor, slight, petty, trifling, Mickey Mouse (slang), piddling (informal), toytown (slang), poxy (slang), nickel-and-dime (U.S. slang), picayune (U.S.), chickenshit (U.S. slang), twopenny-halfpenny (Brit. informal) She had no interest in such paltry concerns.
insignificant major, important, grand, significant, essential, consequential

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

paltry

adjective

1. Contemptibly unimportant:

inconsiderable, negligible, niggling, nugatory, petty, picayune, piddling, small, small-minded, trifling.

Slang: measly.

Idiom: of no account.

2. Of decidedly inferior quality:

base, cheap, lousy, miserable, poor, rotten, shoddy, sleazy, trashy.

Informal: cheesy.

Slang: crummy, schlocky.

Translations

paltry

[ˈpɔːltrɪ] (paltrier (compar) (paltriest (superl))) ADJ → ínfimo, miserable
for a few paltry pennies → por unos miserables peniques
for some paltry reason → por alguna nimiedad

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

paltry

[ˈpɔːltri] adj

(= meagre) [sum, fine, sentence] → dérisoire

(= petty) [matter] → dérisoire

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

paltry

adj → armselig, schäbig; for a few paltry pounds → für ein paar lumpige or armselige Pfund; he gave some paltry excuse → er brachte irgendeine armselige Entschuldigung hervor

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

paltry

[ˈpɔːltrɪ] adj (meagre) → irrisorio/a; (unworthy of consideration) → insignificante
for a paltry £5 → per la somma irrisoria di 5 sterline

References in classic literature ?

For be a man's intellectual superiority what it will, it can never assume the practical, available supremacy over other men, without the aid of some sort of external arts and entrenchments, always, in themselves, more or less paltry and base.

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Aye, lighting from the boat to the deck, thus I trample on thee, thou paltry thing that feebly pointest on high; thus I split and destroy thee!

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"To think that the freedom of Mexico should stand or fall on a few paltry thousands of dollars," said Paulino Vera.

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Many exquisite viands might be rejected by the epicure, if it was a sufficient cause for his contemning of them as common and vulgar, that something was to be found in the most paltry alleys under the same name.

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And who has not seen the tragedy of imprudent genius struggling for years with paltry pecuniary difficulties, at last sinking, chilled, exhausted and fruitless, like a giant slaughtered by pins?

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But it appearing a paltry thing to serve under others, he resolved, with the aid of some citizens of Fermo, to whom the slavery of their country was dearer than its liberty, and with the help of the Vitelleschi, to seize Fermo.

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For a free mountaineer to pause at a paltry consideration of dollars and cents, in the attainment of any object that might strike his fancy, would stamp him with the mark of the beast in the estimation of his comrades.

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When I first tried to write, I had nothing to write about except a few paltry experiences which I neither understood nor appreciated.

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So exquisite is the adaptation of Bass to Treble, of Tenor to Contralto, that oftentimes the Loved Ones, though twenty thousand leagues away, recognize at once the responsive note of their destined Lover; and, penetrating the paltry obstacles of distance, Love unites the three.

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So insignificant at that moment seemed to him all the interests that engrossed Napoleon, so mean did his hero himself with his paltry vanity and joy in victory appear, compared to the lofty, equitable, and kindly sky which he had seen and understood, that he could not answer him.

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These, in the days of their abundance, ever regarded gold as dross, and have not yet got over that only impediment in the way of their amassing wealth, but they want no dross from Nicodemus Boffin, Esquire; No, Mr Boffin; the world may term it pride, paltry pride if you will, but they wouldn't take it if you offered it; a loan, sir--for fourteen weeks to the day, interest calculated at the rate of five per cent per annum, to be bestowed upon any charitable institution you may name--is all they want of you, and if you have the meanness to refuse it, count on being despised by these great spirits.

View in context

"There's not a more paltry fellow in Middlemarch than Bowyer," said Ladislaw, indignantly, "but it seems as if the paltry fellows were always to turn the scale."