paltry

But none of that excuses the paltry returns on big investments.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2026

"The paltry fines that usually follow incidents of this nature are not a deterrent and the current 'system' is broken."

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

The lack of hiring was especially stark in 2025, when the U.S. private sector produced a paltry 296,000 new jobs over the course of an entire year.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026

The dividend yield for the S&P 500 is paltry, at just over 1%.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

A man answered, “Well, he was walking all the way from Grand Rapids to Hint, it looks like he provided a pretty paltry meal for every mosquito on the way.”

From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis

So far, milder summer temperatures have spared him from the prospect of even paltrier yields.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 2, 2014

He must maintain appearances in keeping with his associations—or drop downscale to meaner opportunities and paltrier prizes.

From The Law of Hemlock Mountain by Hugh Lundsford

The design is the same in both, the proportions also; but the one is a chimney, the other a paltry model of a paltrier edifice.

From The Poetry of Architecture Or, the Architecture of the Nations of Europe Considered in its Association with Natural Scenery and National Character by John Ruskin

It is a triumph over cowardice, baseness, the love of ease and safety, all the paltrier aspects of our nature; but a triumph over death it is not.

From God and Mr. Wells A Critical Examination of 'God the Invisible King' by William Archer

Ah! what a contrast there is between the languid way in which Christian men pursue what the Bible designates their 'calling' and that in which men with far paltrier aims pursue theirs!

From Expositions of Holy Scripture Second Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians Chapters I to End. Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy. by Alexander Maclaren

This not only explains why Jupiter only has the paltriest of rings at present; it suggests that it likely never had large rings.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2022

Meanwhile, the true laborers of the book industry — those who hustle and work the angles, who take the greatest risks and reap the paltriest rewards — will barely get any bookseller facetime at all.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2020

The spring snowpack is the paltriest ever measured — by April it contained just 5% of a normal year’s water — and by the end of August the major reservoirs held 59% of their historical average.

From Nature ● Sep. 29, 2015

He takes into his head the paltriest notion that he can gain time to pacify the King by feigning himself sick.

From Sir Walter Raleigh and His Time by Charles Kingsley

He kept as much as possible to dialogue; the space is filled so much more quickly, and at a pinch one can make people talk about the paltriest incidents of life.

From New Grub Street by George Gissing