paltry

• (obsolete) paultry, paultrie, palterey

From Middle Low German paltrig (“ragged, rubbishy, worthless”), from palter, palte (“cloth, rag, shred”), from Old Saxon *paltro, *palto (“cloth, rag”), from Proto-Germanic *paltrô, *paltô (“scrap, rag, patch”). Cognate with Low German palterig (“ragged, torn”), German dialectal palterig (“paltry”). Compare also Low German palte (“rag”), West Frisian palt (“rag”), Saterland Frisian Palte (“strip; band; tape”), German dialectal Palter (“rag”), Danish pjalt (“rag, tatter”), Swedish palta (“rag”). See also palterly.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːltɹi/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑltɹi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔltɹi/

paltry (comparative paltrier, superlative paltriest)

1. trashy, trivial, of little value

   This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product.

   She made some paltry excuse and left.

2. Of little monetary worth

   Could someone hope to survive on such a paltry income?

   Student grants these days are paltry, and many students have to take out loans.

   Synonyms: meager, worthless, pitiful, trifling

   • 1928, William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium

     "An aged man is but a paltry thing, / A tattered coat upon a stick"

• Nouns to which "paltry" is often applied: sum, rate, amount, number, price, salary, wages, fellow, pay, excuse, income, gain, compensation.

• partly, raptly