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puny

[pyoo-nee]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective, -ni·er, -ni·est.

of less than normal size and strength; weak.

unimportant; insignificant; petty or minor: a puny excuse.

Obsolete. puisne.

Origin:
1540–50; spelling variant of puisne

Related forms

pu·ni·ly, adverb

pu·ni·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Puny is always a great word to know.

So is slumgullion. Does it mean:

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

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Example Sentences

Begin with a puny budget, considerable resistance and no big names.

In the event, the rhetoric sounded musty as ever, and the announced changes looked puny.

For example, the giant whale shark feasts on these puny animals.

EXPAND

Begin with a puny budget, considerable resistance and no big names.

In the event, the rhetoric sounded musty as ever, and the announced changes looked puny.

For example, the giant whale shark feasts on these puny animals.

Planets, on the other hand, are too puny and cold to initiate fusion.

Most digital picture frames are limited to puny amounts of built-in memory or require external cards to beef up capacity.

These odd birds are good for eggs but too puny to make a meal.

But steelmakers are puny compared with their main suppliers and customers.

Westerners may laugh at the puny elevations and elevation gains of these peaks.

We are not harmed by this high voltage, because the amount of charge that flows is puny.

It takes the iPad's puny output and guides it through an acoustic cavity, letting it relax, stretch and decompress.

And our government spending on social programs is equally puny.

The self-satisfied atmosphere at the central bank hardly corresponds to the puny system it runs.

They should have gone right off the page instead of taking up the puny amount of space allotted.

Too puny to be able to tap capital markets, they are at the mercy of the banks.

The hope is that industry is lean rather than merely puny.

The economy has stabilised but foreign investment is still puny.

There are big ones, little ones, heavy ones and puny ones.

Powerful telescopes show us the remote planets and faraway galaxies that our puny retinas cannot see.

Not a puny orphan such as one sometimes sees shedding tears in an aquarium.

Advertisers and television networks have pushed back even against this puny threat.

The dimming could be detected by even a puny one-meter telescope.

Behind that imposing grill lies a puny powerplant and a drivetrain prone to failure.

Offshore accounts offered puny rates of interest because banks could do so little with the money.

We cannot survive relying on the puny limitations of our senses senses.

Artificial atoms can have hundreds, even thousands, making today's periodic table look puny.

Too puny to join in sports with the other princes, he amuses himself quietly with his toys and pets.

It is a planet versus a puny species living on the surface.

Palette and brush in hand, he seems awestruck by the demands of artistic creation and by his own awareness of man's puny stature.

It is puny relative to the size of global markets today.

Indeed, such an amount might be regarded as so puny a donation as to be insulting.

No pizza slices in this survey came even close to that puny size.

Unocal is a puny player on the world oil and gas scene.

They have shown that they are prepared to spend a big share of their puny budgets on defence:.

But the puny dimensions of the father's rhetoric are a little heartbreaking too.

Otherwise, its puny battery would be drained before the day was out-and any unfinished work lost for good.

The mark was so tentative and so puny that even my cat wouldn't have deigned to claim the scratch as her own.

In comparison, the sales numbers of e-readers and tablet computers are puny.

He wants to make a big, dangerous bet for puny stakes.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

puny (ˈpjuːnɪ)

—*adj* , -nier, -niest
1.	having a small physique or weakly constitution
2.	paltry; insignificant

[C16: from Old French puisnepuisne]

'punily

—*adv*

'puniness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

puny

1540s, "inferior in rank," from M.Fr. puîné, from O.Fr. puisné "born later, younger" (12c., contrasted with aisné "first-born"), from puis "afterward" (from V.L. *postius, from L. postea, from post "after") + O.Fr. né "born," from L. natus, pp. of nasci "be born" (Old

EXPAND

L. gnasci; see genus). Sense of "small, weak, insignificant" first recorded 1590s.

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"I speak for an art ... weary of its puny exploits, weary of pretending to be able, of being able, of doing a little better the same old thing, of going a little further along a dreary road."

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puny

pu·ny