paltry

“But discovery revealed that Defendants’ paltry ‘intelligence’ was manufactured to justify operations at public access locations Defendants were already intent on raiding,” according to the motion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

Graduates will enter an economy struggling with weak consumer demand, where year-on-year retail sales contracted for the first time in three years in May, and revenue in the catering sector rose a paltry 0.6 percent.

From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026

It still was far from their worst defensive showing of the season, and mostly they couldn’t claw their way back with a paltry 30.8% from the field.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026

Bogle took the opportunity, paltry as it was.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

Some are insignificant, paltry collections of a few dozen galaxies.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

So far, milder summer temperatures have spared him from the prospect of even paltrier yields.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 2, 2014

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 MacDonald, George

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 Maclaren, Alexander

The design is the same in both, the proportions also; but the one is a chimney, the other a paltry model of a paltrier edifice.

From The Poetry of Architecture Or, the Architecture of the Nations of Europe Considered in its Association with Natural Scenery and National Character by Ruskin, John

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 Archer, William

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

But man, reckless animal, is so made that in him curiosity, the paltriest curiosity, will overcome all terrors, every disgust, and even despair itself. 

From Chance A Tale in Two Parts by Conrad, Joseph

He had been known to quit a house on the paltriest excuse, removing to another in which he could not expect equally good treatment.

From Victorian Short Stories of Troubled Marriages by Kipling, Rudyard