Word of the Day

Friday, December 26, 2008

paltry

\PAWL-tree\ , adjective;

almost worthless; trifling

of no worth; contemptible, despicable

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Quotes:

The Denver defense is in tatters, ranking among the worst in the league, surrendering 31 points to a Raiders team that had been averaging a paltry 12.8 per game.

-- Mark Kiszla, Denver Post, 11/24/2008

It has long been acknowledged, for instance, that the British Secret Intelligence Service has compensated for its paltry size - it has about one-tenth the manpower of the CIA - by leveraging the reputation of its most famous fictional spy, James Bond.

-- Kelly M. Greenhill, Los Angeles Times, 5/28/2007

Almost everything on the vastly unimaginative happy hour menu contains pico de gallo and sour cream, including small, wizened potato skins containing a few paltry crumbles of bacon.

-- Nikki Buchanan, The Arizona Republic, 11/25/2008

Origin:

by 1565, probably associated with dialectic palt, pelt "trash," cognate with Middle Low German and East Frisian palte "rag," and Middle Dutch palt "broken or torn fragment." Comparative and superlative forms are paltrier and paltriest.