measley

comparative more measley · superlative most measley

1. uncommonUncommon form of measly.

   It would have to be eaten now, “An' all fur a measley little dime,” said Angeline.

   1895, The Arena, volume 11, page 397

   5 more examples

   In a few days the child broke out with a measley eruption, which ran its course, and the child was again restored to its usual health.

   1887, The Homœopathic Physician, volume 7, page 475

   “I’ll not take her measley money, not one damn cent of it,” said Wes, “and don’t you tender it to me—I forbid it.”

   1915, Harvey C. Lowrance, chapter V [The Chipmunk’s partners], in Melvin Mace; a Story of a Zinc Mine, Kansas City, Mo.: Press of Franklin Hudson Publishing Company, page 34

   What in hell does he think? That I’ll double back and stick up his measley little office?

   1939, Irene Baird, chapter 16, in Waste Heritage (Laurentian Library; 18), Toronto, Ont.: Macmillan of Canada, published 1974, →ISBN, page 219

   This dowser of ours is a kind o’ slack-twisted fellow with a no-account wife and a parcel o’ measley children that are apt to pick up what don’t belong to ’em if they get the chance.

   1941, Mary Ellen Chase, “The Inheritance”, in Windswept, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, section 14, page 60

   I’m wonderin’ what Sidoli will do when she gets close to him. I bet he knows a trick or two. He’ll probably grab her an’ hold her in front of his measley carcase.

   1944, A[rchibald] E[dward] Martin, chapter 13, in The Misplaced Corpse (Wakefield Crime Classics; 1), Adelaide, South Australia: Wakefield Press, published June 1992, →ISBN, page 175