as in nominal
so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention
there's only a piddly difference in price between the two paintings, so take whichever you prefer
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Recent Examples of piddly
This stole the top spot from 1993, with its piddly 76 days over 100.
—
Hayleigh Evans, The Arizona Republic, 21 Dec. 2024
Online savings accounts have proliferated in recent years, offering higher yields than the piddly rates attached to ordinary savings accounts, which are less than 0.1%, on average.
—Ryan Dezember, WSJ, 11 Nov. 2022
Byrne is still a United States congressman and that’s no piddly thing.
—Kyle Whitmire, al, 7 Nov. 2019
This information isn't written in the controller's piddly instruction manual.
—Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 16 Nov. 2018
After Kilauea's 1924 summit explosions, the volcano entered a decade of piddly rumblings, followed by 18 years of silence.
—Sophia Yan and Malcolm Ritter, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 June 2018
But sometimes self-denial is its own form of power, as you are no doubt noticing, crammed into that piddly apartment.
—Helaine Olen, Slate Magazine, 25 Jan. 2017
Adding an additional 23,000 km is really a piddly amount.
—Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 21 Sep. 2010
Recent Examples of Synonyms for piddly
Adjective
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Austin Public trains those producers, who, for a nominal fee, gain access to state-of-the-art equipment, studio space and content distribution for their own work.—
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Academic users will be able to access the platform for a nominal fee, while biotech and pharmaceutical companies are charged an annual subscription, which gives them the right to store their data securely, as well as a relatively low per-use charge.—
Adjective
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The ice punishes the slightest miscalculations, demands the sharpest of focus.—
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One report found there may be a slight benefit to moderate drinking, while the other concluded that even one drink a day was linked to a wide range of harms.—
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.—
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Nanotubes are ultra-small cylindrical structures, so tiny that thousands could fit across the width of a human hair.—
Adjective
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Angel went for a respectful middle-of-the-road jab — complimenting her parenting and resilience, but maligning her for being petty.—
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Who is not petty or vindictive.—
Adjective
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Then, the pandemic reduced the schedule to 60 games and Eddie got a piddling 37%.—
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Millions of additional claims are expected to stream in from around the country over the coming weeks, while hiring remains piddling.—
Adjective
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The ‘major questions’ doctrine, a principle way to interpret statutes, prevents Congress from hiding major powers in insignificant laws.—
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That demographic, not insignificant, isn’t directly pandered to and might wonder how Alexander Hamilton could be treated as a historical footnote.—
Adjective
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There were 70,000 hospitalizations a year, which was not trivial, and virtually eliminating them was one of the major successes for vaccines in this country.—
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If that seems trivial, your at-home priorities may require review.—
Adjective
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While resorts across Colorado are reporting far below normal snowfall and paltry percentages of open terrain for the peak holiday period, one ski area is managing just fine because its mountain operations team has figured out ways to make a little go a long way.—
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In the end, Kapoor’s reckoning came over a dispute involving a relatively paltry $80,000 and an outsider.—
Cite this Entry
“Piddly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/piddly. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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