as in nominal
so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention
offered her guest only one measly cookie
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Recent Examples of measly
Ellison’s wealth stands at $393 billion, surpassing Musk, who has a measly $385 billion, according to Bloomberg’s calculations.
—
Jordan Valinsky, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 2025
Expanding the Mac mini M4’s storage beyond the measly base 256GB SSD is eye-watering.
—Mark Sparrow, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2025
In fact, their 263 puts them on trajectory to shatter the franchise record for the most measly production in a season, 586, held by, oof, the inaugural 1969 expansion team.
—Vahe Gregorian, Kansas City Star, 27 June 2025
Musk, Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are all fans of Iain Banks’s Culture series, which imagines a post-scarcity socialist utopia where all of our measly 21st-century problems have been solved by technological advancement.
—Robert Rubsam, The Atlantic, 21 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for measly
Jordan Valinsky, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 2025
Expanding the Mac mini M4’s storage beyond the measly base 256GB SSD is eye-watering.
—Mark Sparrow, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2025
In fact, their 263 puts them on trajectory to shatter the franchise record for the most measly production in a season, 586, held by, oof, the inaugural 1969 expansion team.
—Vahe Gregorian, Kansas City Star, 27 June 2025
Musk, Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are all fans of Iain Banks’s Culture series, which imagines a post-scarcity socialist utopia where all of our measly 21st-century problems have been solved by technological advancement.
—Robert Rubsam, The Atlantic, 21 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for measly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for measly
Adjective
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In addition to the music, train rides will be offered around the park for a nominal fee courtesy of the Poway-Midland Railroad.—
Elizabeth Marie Himchak,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
4 Nov. 2025
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Kim Yong Nam was not related to Kim Jong Un, but his loyalty to the ruling family enabled him to serve as president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly—the country's nominal head of state—from 1998 until April 2019.—
Hollie Silverman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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The score indicates a slight improvement from the 2023-24 school year, when 26% of students achieved Level 3 or 4.—
Dmitry Martirosov,
Arkansas Online,
12 Nov. 2025
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Katy Perry's manager appeared to take a slight dig at Wendy's, months after the fast food chain's comments about his pop star client.—
Taylor Ardrey,
USA Today,
11 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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At the previous World Cup in 2022, hosted by tiny Qatar, all of England’s games were in Doha or just outside that city.—
Jack Pitt-Brooke,
New York Times,
9 Nov. 2025
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Nanotubes are ultra-small cylindrical structures, so tiny that thousands could fit across the width of a human hair.—
Jijo Malayil,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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Saddled with higher interest rates on their bonds, people in poor cities and towns today pay double the amount in property taxes, often suffer higher home-foreclosure rates, and wield paltrier education budgets compared with their wealthier counterparts.—
Michael Waters,
The Atlantic,
6 Nov. 2025
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Meanwhile, independent artists have spent years expressing their frustrations with the paltry payouts of most DSPs.—
Jeff Ihaza,
Rolling Stone,
10 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Measly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/measly. Accessed 15 Nov. 2025.
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