puny
Americanadjective
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of less than normal size and strength; weak.
-
unimportant; insignificant; petty or minor.
a puny excuse.
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Obsolete. puisne.
adjective
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having a small physique or weakly constitution
-
paltry; insignificant
Other Word Forms
- punily adverb
- puniness noun
Etymology
Origin of puny
First recorded in 1540–50; spelling variant of puisne
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But unlike that Oscar winner, “Two Prosecutors” has a man of conscience at its center — a confident crusader who becomes increasingly puny in the face of Stalin’s Soviet Union.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026
Within five years, the firm was looking after $165 billion compared with the puny $20 billion that its departing investors had left behind them on the way out the door at the bubble-market highs.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026
Climate change is what philosopher Timothy Morton calls a hyperobject: something that so massively occupies space and time that our puny primate brains have trouble fathoming them.
From Salon • Dec. 31, 2025
Some senior Labour figures fret privately that their talk of "missions" and a "Plan for Change" might seem puny to many in comparison with the scale of that challenge.
From BBC • Mar. 13, 2025
Methuselah sits puny and still in his avocado tree with his eyes ticking back and forth, unprepared for a new season of overwhelming freedom.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
