Literary notes about measly (AI summary)
In literature, the adjective "measly" is frequently employed to underscore the triviality or inadequacy of an amount, object, or quality. Writers use it to cast a dismissive light on things as diverse as a paltry sum of money ([1], [2]), a scant portion of food ([3], [4]), or even a seemingly inadequate performance or effort ([5], [6]). Its usage often carries an ironic tone, as seen when it minimizes the value of a wage or labor ([7], [8]), or belittles an object or a creature by marking it as insignificant or inferior ([9], [10]). Overall, "measly" functions as a linguistic tool that sharply contrasts expectations with the actual, often disappointing, reality.
- Five francs would do, and what are measly five francs anyway, if they are the means of saving you from prison?
— from In the Foreign Legion by Erwin Rosen - A measly hundred and fifty dollars a month and find yourself.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad - I did have a dinner, though it war a terrible measly one—Mrs. Breynton, marm!”
— from Gypsy Breynton by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps - He took some jerky and canned stuff—but only one measly beer bottle of water.
— from The Desire of the Moth; and the Come On by Eugene Manlove Rhodes - This measly outburst must reveal to a person of any insight just one thing: the essential line of difference between the artist and the dilettante.
— from Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays - "I can't waste time on a chicken-headed woman—" "Out wid ye before I break the measly head of ye!"
— from They of the High Trails by Hamlin Garland - “But,” I was saying, “$45 a month for skilled labour seems to me a measly wage.
— from The Idyl of Twin Fires by Walter Prichard Eaton - Well, I don’t like to work my feet off for a measly seven dollars.
— from The Two Christmas Boxes: A Play for Girls by Elsie Duncan Yale - That thousand dollars gold Smoke bought that measly potato with.
— from Smoke Bellew by Jack London - West began slowly: “James, in your riding over the range, have you noticed among any of my cows a scrub, measly-looking red bull?
— from The Brand: A Tale of the Flathead Reservation by Therese Broderick
