Word Study
measly
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Adjective measly has 1 sense
- measly(s = adj.all) miserable, paltry - contemptibly small in amount; "a measly tip"; "the company donated a miserable $100 for flood relief"; "a paltry wage"; "almost depleted his miserable store of dried beans"
CIDE DICTIONARY
measly, a.
- Infected with measles. [1913 Webster]
- Containing larval tapeworms; -- said of pork and beef. [1913 Webster]
- Contemptibly small in quantity; meager; absurdly insufficient or bad; as, a measly few dollars for all that work. [PJC]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
measly, adj. (measlier, measliest)
1 colloq. inferior, contemptible, worthless.
2 of or affected with measles.
3 (of pork) infested with tapeworms.
1 colloq. inferior, contemptible, worthless.
2 of or affected with measles.
3 (of pork) infested with tapeworms.
Etymology
MEASLES + -Y(1)
THESAURUS
measly
abject, abominable, allergic, anemic, apoplectic, arrant, arthritic, atrocious, base, beggarly, bilious, cancerous, cheesy, chlorotic, colicky, consumptive, contemptible, crummy, debased, degraded, depraved, despicable, dirty, disgusting, dropsical, dyspeptic, edematous, encephalitic, epileptic, execrable, flagrant, foul, fulsome, grave, gross, heinous, jerkwater, laryngitic, leprous, little, low, low-down, luetic, lumpen, malarial, malignant, mangy, mean, mingy, miserable, miserly, monstrous, nefarious, nephritic, neuralgic, neuritic, niggardly, niggling, obnoxious, odious, one-horse, palsied, paltry, paralytic, pathetic, pettifogging, petty, phthisic, picayune, picayunish, piddling, piffling, pleuritic, pneumonic, pocky, podagric, poky, poor, punk, puny, rachitic, rank, reptilian, rheumatic, rickety, scabby, scant, scanty, scorbutic, scrofulous, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, shabby, shoddy, skimpy, small, small-beer, small-time, sparse, squalid, stingy, tabetic, tabid, tinhorn, trifling, trivial, tubercular, tuberculous, tumorigenic, tumorous, two-bit, two-by-four, unmentionable, vile, wretched
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