From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpaltrypal‧try /ˈpɔːltri $ ˈpɒːl-/ adjective 1 SMALLa paltry amount of something is too small to be useful or important paltry sum of money He received only a paltry £25 a day.2 STUPID/NOT SENSIBLE formal unimportant or worthless SYN trivial paltry issues
Examples from the Corpus
paltry• a paltry 1.2% growth rate• Even during the bubble years of the early 1990s, its average annual growth rate was a paltry 2. 7 percent.• Many of the workers in the factory received a paltry $2 a day.• A paltry 5 % reduction of the 1990 level has been set, but by when?• Their paltry and insignificant level has already been considered.• But the pay is paltry compared with the hundreds that can be made on a good day of lobstering.• paltry excuses• But aside from Evita City, there is paltry physical evidence of her existence.• Last year workers were offered a paltry raise of only one percent.• But the total amount of helium-3 in Uranus and Neptune is vastly larger than this paltry sum.• Cover is a paltry three bucks, and further questions can be answered by calling 622-8848.• Club owners in Kansas City paid paltry wages to jazz musicians but gave them steady work.paltry sum• But the total amount of helium-3 in Uranus and Neptune is vastly larger than this paltry sum.• That is why men and women come on these schemes for such a paltry sum.• Little of these paltry sums is likely to be new money, most being sliced off existing allocations.From Longman Business Dictionarypaltrypal‧try /ˈpɔːltriˈpɒːl-/ adjective very small in number or amount and therefore not useful, important, or valuableAs interest rates fell, returns on fixed-income investments looked paltry compared with the stock market gains.Origin paltry (1500-1600) paltry “worthless material” ((16-19 centuries)) 