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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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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
Adding an additional 23,000 km is really a piddly amount.
—Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 21 Sep. 2010
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
Hayleigh Evans, The Arizona Republic, 21 Dec. 2024
Adding an additional 23,000 km is really a piddly amount.
—Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 21 Sep. 2010
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for piddly
Adjective
-
Howe used four different left-backs last term, mainly fielding Dan Burn there (a nominal centre-back at 6ft 7in/201cm), while Newcastle were the most one-sided team in the league for crosses — over 60 per cent came from the right.—
Liam Tharme,
The Athletic,
24 Feb. 2025
-
Out of all of the foreign investment sources that have pumped cash into South Florida real estate, financial institutions, and new businesses over the years, Saudi Arabia is a nation that at best has a nominal presence in the region.—
David Lyons,
Sun Sentinel,
23 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
The agency also shared that the new data suggested that the asteroid had a 1.7% chance of hitting the moon, but those slight odds of impact do not pose a risk to Earth.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN,
24 Feb. 2025
-
This scale ranks objects from 0, meaning no impact, to 10, which is (ok, this is a slight exaggeration) nearly as bad as the destruction of Alderaan in Star Wars.—
Eric Berger,
Ars Technica,
24 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Going into a huge thing like that as one tiny person who's never done anything like this.—
Steve Baltin,
Forbes,
21 Feb. 2025
-
Musk has estimated that his Department of Government Efficiency has cut $55 billion so far — a tiny fraction of the $6.8 trillion federal budget.—
Christopher Rugaber,
Chicago Tribune,
21 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
With the wave of a hand—or, to be more precise, the tapping of a few overnight posts on social media—American political horizons are being remade in ways that are petty and absurd.—
Penny Abeywardena,
Forbes,
22 Feb. 2025
-
The professor said the groups committed crimes, but their offenses were relatively petty by today’s standards: brawling and shakedowns of non-gang members for their bikes or lunch money.—
Libor Jany,
Los Angeles Times,
22 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Then, the pandemic reduced the schedule to 60 games and Eddie got a piddling 37%.—
Star Tribune,
Star Tribune,
3 Dec. 2020
-
Millions of additional claims are expected to stream in from around the country over the coming weeks, while hiring remains piddling.—
Patricia Cohen,
New York Times,
23 Apr. 2020
Adjective
-
What does that look like in what some would be considered as insignificant as a candle?—
Lisa Vernon Sparks,
Charlotte Observer,
25 Feb. 2025
-
Screenings for unrelated conditions can pick up thyroid nodules that are technically cancerous but asymptomatic or clinically insignificant.—
Jenna Anderson,
Health,
25 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
So that seems to apply even to sports, something that seems kind of trivial.—
Yaakov Katz,
Newsweek,
9 Feb. 2025
-
Identifying whether a stock will rise or fall and when that move will happen are not trivial questions.—
Michael Khouw,
CNBC,
6 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
There was a woman in her seventies who had been raped years ago by the father of one of the fifty-one defendants—making the trial, for her, a paltry chance at remedial justice.—
Katie Ebner-Landy,
The New Yorker,
22 Feb. 2025
-
In their last 10 games (3-7), the Rockets are a paltry 28th in field goal percentage and 29th on 3-pointers.—
Steven Louis Goldstein,
The Athletic,
21 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Piddly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/piddly. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.
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