paltry

England's pace bowlers were outstanding in dismissing Sri Lanka for a paltry 124, then the home side chased the target in 9.4 overs.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

Customs data from the Maldives shows a paltry amount of exports to Russia between 2022 and 2025—about $2,300 of tuna and $25 in leaflets and brochures.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

Alas, “The Whisper Man” is merely a collection of defanged genre tropes and equally familiar character writing, tossing paltry scraps to its supporting cast in Michelle Monaghan and Michael Keaton.

From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026

Since May, the U.S. has added a paltry 60,000 jobs — and employment even fell in July.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026

How strange and paltry it seemed at the time, and now, looking back, what an abundance of good protein had been sacrificed in our honor.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

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

From Washington Times ● Aug. 2, 2014

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

If one of the meanest of human conditions is conscious heroism, paltrier yet is heroism before the fact, incapable of self realization!

From The Marquis of Lossie by George MacDonald

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

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

Their patriotism was so pronounced and aggressive that they literally spat at the soldiers, and assured them that no money of theirs would ever suffice to purchase the paltriest flag they carried.

From With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back by Edward P. Lowry

Of course; but, providing she's won, He'll descend to the paltriest dodge.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 1, 1893 by Sir F. C. (Francis Cowley) Burnand