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paltry

[pawl-tree] / ˈpɔl tri /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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That prize money was only introduced at the 2024 Games in Paris, and is paltry compared to the potential millions in winnings on offer in other major sports.

From BBC Sep. 14, 2026

Taken together, it’s hard to imagine the event will draw much beyond a paltry audience.

From Salon Sep. 9, 2026

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

From MarketWatch Aug. 29, 2026

Entering Tuesday, he had a solid .822 OPS on the road and a paltry .558 OPS at Dodger Stadium.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 19, 2026

Samir stood back and shouted in reply, “What paltry merchandise are you selling these good people, Rasseem?”

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

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

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

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

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

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 could tell you the very brand of the pills the Raja is taking: he receives the paltriest gossip of the Nawab's court filtered through a lying vakeel.

From Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series by George Robert Aberigh-Mackay

Wherefore be he what he will I do not passe; He is the paltriest Ape that euer was.

From Calamities and Quarrels of Authors by Isaac Disraeli




Vocabulary lists containing paltry


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