measly

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(mēz') pronunciation
adj., -sli·er, -sli·est.
  1. Slang. Contemptibly small; meager: gave the parking attendant a measly tip.
  2. Infected with measles.

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adjective

  1. Conspicuously deficient in quantity, fullness, or extent: exiguous, meager, poor, puny, scant, scanty, skimpy, spare, sparse, stingy, thin. See big/small/amount, excess/insufficiency/enough.
  2. Contemptibly unimportant: inconsiderable, negligible, niggling, nugatory, paltry, petty, picayune, piddling, small, small-minded, trifling. Idioms: of no account. See important/unimportant.


adj

Definition: skimpy
Antonyms: abundant, plenty, proficient, satisfactory, sufficient

adjective
adjective

Disappointingly small in amount or number. (1864 —) .
Sunday Telegraph A spineless exhibition by the early Yorkshire batting—they have mustered only a measly five batting points all season—put them on the rack yet again (1974).

[From earlier sense, spotty (as if) with measles.]


Previous:meany, mean, me-and-you
Next:meat, meat rack, meat ticket

Said of beef, pork and mutton because infected meat has a speckled appearance thought to resemble measles (1) in humans. See also cysticercus.

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'measly'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to measly, see:

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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - elendig, ussel, foragtelig

Nederlands (Dutch)
miezerig, de mazelen hebben, wormen bevattend

Français (French)
adj. - misérable, minable

Deutsch (German)
adj. - popelig

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - άνευ αξίας, μηδαμινός, ασήμαντος, ανάξιος, τιποτένιος, πενιχρός, ευτελής

Italiano (Italian)
morbilloso, meschino

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - atacado de sarampo, miserável (Gír.)

Русский (Russian)
больной корью, ничтожный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - miserable, mezquino

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - ynklig, mässlingssjuk, dyntig

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
患麻疹的

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 患麻疹的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 홍역의, 초라한, 하찮은, 잡다한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - みみっちい, ちっぽけな, はしかの, つまらない

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) محصوب, متحصب, تحصيبي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮זעום, עלוב‬


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