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
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.
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
Energy stocks are the market’s big winners so far this year, jumping 20% when the S&P 500 is up a measly 2%.
From Barron's • Feb. 11, 2026
The NFL and its partners would like to reset that expectation, leaving room to one day air much more than a measly minute of RedZone commercials.
From Slate • Sep. 8, 2025
A $9 grilled cheese sandwich came with a measly piece of bacon, thick globs of half-melted cheese and two slices of burnt Texas Toast.
From Salon • Aug. 18, 2025
Flopears had only a measly little square of hard salt-and-water corn bread in his pail that wouldn’t fill a wood tick.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
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.
