PALTRY (paltrier, paltriest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: paltrier    , paltriest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does paltry mean? 

• PALTRY (adjective)
  The adjective PALTRY has 2 senses:

1. not worth considering

2. contemptibly small in amount

  Familiarity information: PALTRY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PALTRY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not worth considering

Synonyms:

negligible; paltry; trifling

Context example:

a trifling matter

Similar:

worthless (lacking in usefulness or value)

Derivation:

paltriness (worthlessness due to insignificance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Contemptibly small in amount

Synonyms:

measly; miserable; paltry

Context example:

almost depleted his miserable store of dried beans

Similar:

meager; meagerly; meagre; scrimpy; stingy (deficient in amount or quality or extent)

Derivation:

paltriness (worthlessness due to insignificance)

 Context examples 

My God! Martin thought; you can travel in a Pullman while I starve for the paltry five dollars you owe me.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But, in my opinion, it is a paltry device, a very mean art.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

My love would have been devoted—would have trod your paltry whimpering under foot!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“What a paltry place!” said she; “to whom does that little dirty hole belong?”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

With such a dearth of heavy elements, astronomers predict that the LMC should contain a comparatively paltry amount of complex carbon-based molecules.

(Stellar Embryos in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy Contain Surprisingly Complex Organic Molecules, National Radio Astronomy Observatory)

These infinitesimal distinctions between man and man are too paltry for an Omnipotent Being.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The most trivial, paltry, insignificant part; the merest commonplace; not a tolerable speech in the whole.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Everything that revolts other people, low company, paltry rooms, foul air, disgusting associations are inviting to you.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

It may have been a humble object-lesson, but I give you my word that many a time in my life I have braced myself to a hard task by the remembrance of that morning upon Crawley Downs, asking myself if my manhood were so weak that I would not do for my country, or for those whom I loved, as much as these two would endure for a paltry stake and for their own credit amongst their fellows.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now, when any vicious simpleton excites my disgust by his paltry ribaldry, I cannot flatter myself that I am better than he: I am forced to confess that he and I are on a level.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)