puny
Americanadjective
-
of less than normal size and strength; weak.
-
unimportant; insignificant; petty or minor.
a puny excuse.
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Obsolete. puisne.
adjective
-
having a small physique or weakly constitution
-
paltry; insignificant
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of puny
First recorded in 1540–50; spelling variant of puisne
Explanation
Are your muscles looking small, weak, and totally inferior? In other words, puny? Sounds like somebody needs to eat more spinach. Tiny, shrimpy, wimpy and totally unthreatening. That's puny in a nutshell — a very small, totally lame looking nutshell. It's most often used to describe someone's inferior physique, but can also apply to anything little that's not about to get in your way. A puny mountain would be no challenge to an Olympic skier, just as a puny plate of hot dogs would be laughable to a world speed-eating champion.
Vocabulary lists containing puny
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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List 13
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Puny mountains would have slowed erosion of the planet’s rocks, limiting the supply of life-giving nutrients for creatures in the oceans.
From National Geographic • Feb. 11, 2021
In “All My Puny Sorrows,” a woman giving a eulogy is interrupted by her toddler, who opens the urn and scoops the ashes into his mouth.
From New York Times • Apr. 2, 2019
“Nobody moves away from Winnipeg, especially to Toronto, and escapes condemnation,” she wrote, in “All My Puny Sorrows,” her novel about her sister’s illness and death.
From The New Yorker • Mar. 18, 2019
The greatness in "All My Puny Sorrows" comes from Toews' ability to make the reader want to think about that too.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 5, 2014
Hallblithe stood speechless a moment, looking past the Puny Fox, rather than at him.
From The Story of the Glittering Plain; or, the land of Living Men by Morris, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
