measly
Americanadjective
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Informal.
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contemptibly small, meager, or slight.
They paid me a measly fifteen dollars for a day's work.
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wretchedly bad or unsatisfactory.
a measly performance.
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infected with measles, as an animal or its flesh.
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pertaining to or resembling measles.
adjective
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informal meagre in quality or quantity
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(of meat) measled
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having or relating to measles
Etymology
Origin of measly
Explanation
Measly is a great word for describing an amount or number so small that it's ridiculous. You'll be disappointed (and maybe even annoyed) if you're paid a measly six dollars to babysit a toddler for two hours. If you've got a measly ten minutes to eat lunch between classes, it's a laughably short amount of time — hardly enough to unwrap your tuna sandwich. And when a detective has a measly number of clues to help her solve a crime, it can seem nearly impossible. This informal word comes from British slang, and it originally meant "affected by measles."
Vocabulary lists containing measly
Red Kayak
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Merci Suárez Changes Gears
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The Distance Between Us
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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.
Is our celebration of a measly 250 years of continuous operation another example of American puffery?
From Slate • Jul. 4, 2026
Those measly gains were good enough for the latter two to notch fresh highs, their 16th and 12th so far in 2026, respectively.
From Barron's • May 11, 2026
They made a measly three unforced errors in a 6-1, 6-1 semifinal wipeout of Marina’s David Tran and Alejandro Hill.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 25, 2026
The Bank of Canada expects the country’s resource economy to grow a measly 1.1% this year.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026
"But that measly little paycheck barely covered the rent."
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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.
