Vanessa Feltz
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Before "paltry" was an adjective, it was a noun meaning "trash." That now obsolete noun in turn came from "palt" or "pelt," dialect terms meaning "a piece of coarse cloth," or broadly, "trash." The adjective "paltry" first meant "trashy," but currently has a number of senses, all generally meaning "no good." A "paltry house" might be run-down and unfit for occupancy; a "paltry trick" is a trick that is low-down and dirty; a "paltry excuse" is a trivial one; and a "paltry sum" is small and insufficient.
Synonyms
Examples of paltry in a Sentence
Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, 1 Nov. 2024
Days go by; the paltry sunlight shifts here and there, her outfit changes, yet her dull demeanor remains.
—Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 28 Oct. 2024
Fighting to keep up with a volatile economy while often subjected to paltry entry-level salaries and oversized student loans, the most junior employees in the workforce are still reeling.
—Alicia Adamczyk, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2024
That’s a string of seven consecutive flops — each with paltry single-digit debuts — in the nine weeks between early August and mid-October.
—Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 23 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for paltry 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'paltry.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Paltry.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paltry. Accessed 4 Nov. 2024.
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paltry
adjective
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