measley

measley (comparative more measley, superlative most measley)

1. Uncommon form of measly.
   • 1887, The Homœopathic Physician, volume 7, page 475:

     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.

   • 1895, The Arena, volume 11, page 397:

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

   • 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:

     “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.”

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

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

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

     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.

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

     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.

   • 1961 January 27, “Senate Says, ‘Come and Get It’”, in Vincent Copeland, editor, Workers World, volume 3, number 2, New York, N.Y., page 2, column 1:

     McNamara said he was losing a lot of money to take this job with its measley $25,000 per year salary.

   • 1978, anonymous author, “How the Giraffe Decided”, in Eleanor Clarke, compiler, Inside Out, Troy, N.Y.: Regal Art Press; United Methodist Women and Status and Role of Women Commission, Troy Conference, United Methodist Church, part I (Living...from the inside), The Quest, page 18:

     Almost as if in answer to his questions, Spotty began to feel his body tremble. The next thing he knew his legs looked shorter, his neck looked shorter, he had no knobby knobs on his head, and his measley spots were a blur.

   • 1991 November 14, “From Guinness”, in The Middlebury Campus, volume 90, number 9, Middlebury, Vt.: Middlebury College, page 7, column 4:

     The river with the largest flow in the world is the Amazon which surpasses the Nile by 60 times its measley discharge.

   • 2004, John Egerton, “The Southernization of American Politics”, in Anthony Dunbar, editor, Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent, Montgomery, Ala.: NewSouth Books, →ISBN, page 223:

     And second, there is always a chance that a critical mass of progressive Southerners and their democratic allies elsewhere will wise up to the all-hat, no-cattle dude rancher who got us into this mess, and mount an all-out effort to drive his measley herd out to pasture.

   • 2008 October 31, Colby Henderson, “The Who Rock TD Banknorth Garden”, in The Westfield Voice: The Student Press of Westfield State College, volume I, number VIII, Westfield, Mass.: Westfield State College, page 10, column 3:

     To end the first set, The Who played the classic, “My Generation,” which was stretched from its measley 3:21 studio length to almost 10 minutes worth of jamming and improvising from Pete, Zak, and Pino.

   • 2010, Melissa Glenn Haber, Dear Anjali, New York, N.Y.: Aladdin, →ISBN, page 267:

     Here's the funny thing: suddenly I wanted to laugh out loud because I knew she'd lost her superpowers over me. I don't know how, but it was as if I'd been given the bullets and bracelets and the Eye of Agamoto and the antirepulser ray and Letterman's Silent E and the cloak of impenetrability since the last time I saw her and they were all making this protective shield around me and from that fortress I could only laugh at her measley attacks.

• Mealeys