paltry

Alas, “The Whisper Man” is merely a collection of defanged genre tropes and equally familiar character writing, tossing paltry scraps to its supporting cast in Michelle Monaghan and Michael Keaton.

From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026

Since May, the U.S. has added a paltry 60,000 jobs — and employment even fell in July.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026

Entering Tuesday, he had a solid .822 OPS on the road and a paltry .558 OPS at Dodger Stadium.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 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

The dense iron of the locomotive rusted from his mere presence, and the paltry patches of grass shriveled and died under his feet.

From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda

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

From Washington Times ● Aug. 2, 2014

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 Alexander Maclaren

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 William Archer

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 John Ruskin

He must maintain appearances in keeping with his associations—or drop downscale to meaner opportunities and paltrier prizes.

From The Law of Hemlock Mountain by Hugh Lundsford

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

Since Between heart and heart, speech is the paltriest of channels.

From Hints for Lovers by T. Arnold (Theodore Arnold) Haultain

From its very brevity there is no small danger of the epigram passing into childish triviality: the paltriest pun, a senseless anagram, is considered stuff enough and to spare.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various