How to use paltry in a sentence
16 example sentences · adjective
Paltry means trashy, trivial, of little value. Example: “This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product.”
Examples of paltry by meaning
adjectiveTrashy, trivial, of little value.
- This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product.
- She made some paltry excuse and left.
- There are a great many languages, like Eskimo and Nootka and, aside from paltry exceptions, the Semitic languages, that cannot compound radical elements.1921, Edward Sapir, Language: An introduction to the study of speech
adjectiveOf 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.
- Meanwhile, the trade deal has left Britain’s fishing communities screaming betrayal, unhappy with their paltry gains and facing expensive barriers to export what they have caught.2022 July 8, Daniel Boffey, “Collapsing public support suggests Brexit is anything but done”, in The Guardian
adjectiveDespicable; contemptibly unimportant.
- a paltry coward
More sentences with paltry
- Pair that paltry salary with his postseason performance and you have Houston’s overperformer.2017 October 23, Blake Williams, “World Series Preview: Dodgers' And Astros' Overperformers And Underperformers”, in Forbes. From the entry overperformer
- In past two years, Mohali police issued a paltry 17 challans to school bus operators for violations.2012 January 3, The Times of India. From the entry challan
- Her long slim back was straight and paltry in the modern fashion, a dieted back .1930, Rhys Davies, Rings on Her Fingers, page 237. From the entry dieted
- The words they stopped me from uttering may have been very paltry indeed, hardly words to rouse the rabble.1980 October 27, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter IV, in Waiting for the Barbarians, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books…. From the entry rouse
- They judged me harshly for a few paltry actions.1968, Paul Ritchie, Confessions of a People Lover: A Novel - Page 51. From the entry harshly
- Nick him for the paltriest sum, and he lets out a squawk you can hear at Land's End.1934, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VII, in Right Ho, Jeeves, London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, 3 Duke of York Street St. James's…. From the entry oofy
- We grow weary of our paltry carnal transports, our ebulliences of defiance, our abortive expeditions to the frontiers of the respectable world.2016, David Bentley Hart, “Charles Baudelaire: From within the Veil”, in Kenneth Oakes, editor, Christian Wisdom Meets Modernity…. From the entry ebullience
- Quark stood behind his gleaming new bar—purchased for a small fortune from a metalwright on Sauria—and gazed out at his customers . . . his paltry number of customers.2013, David R. George III, chapter 9, in Revelation and Dust (Star Trek: The Fall; 1), New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 180. From the entry metalwright
- “I've terrible serious doubts as to whether eight paltry legions would do more than angrify the barbarians whilst making only a smallish dent in the whole of germanorum.”2011, William Walling, Arminius. From the entry angrify
Meaning of paltry
- adjective Trashy, trivial, of little value.
- adjective Of little monetary worth.
- adjective Despicable; contemptibly unimportant.
Questions about paltry in a sentence
- How do you use paltry in a sentence?
- Paltry is used as an adjective. For example: “This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product.”
- What is a short sentence with paltry?
- “a paltry coward”
- What does paltry mean?
- Paltry means trashy, trivial, of little value.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: paltry (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use paltry in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/paltry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.