From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpunypu‧ny /ˈpjuːni/ adjective 1 WEAKa puny person is small, thin, and weak a puny little guy puny arms► see thesaurus at weak2 EFFECTIVE#not effective or impressivepuny effort/attempt a puny attempt at humour Our efforts look puny beside Fred’s.3 a puny amount of money is too small She was awarded a puny £1,000 in compensation.
Examples from the Corpus
puny• His wife was such a big strong woman, she made him look puny.• Volker's puny body shook with anger.• The relatively puny father-of-three could have been forgiven for having second thoughts when he was picked.• Can you still get your divorce on such puny, immediately regretted unfaithfulness?• Persuasive in its action moments but puny in terms of character and dialogue.• a puny kid• Pete was a puny little boy with short hair and glasses.• So, Cyclops, you were not quite strong enough to eat all of the puny men?• Oh, how puny my contemporaries seem by comparison!• puny profits• And they had to take four semesters of hygiene, or gym-perhaps to counter their waxy pallor and puny stature.puny effort/attempt• Change was a mass movement; it owed nothing to the puny efforts of the individual.Origin puny (1500-1600) Old French puisné “younger”, from puis “afterward” + né “born” 