paltry

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}, {paltry},
           {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}, {paltry}]
    

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]
    

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