What's the difference between paltry and woeful?

Paltry


Definition:

  • (superl.) Mean; vile; worthless; despicable; contemptible; pitiful; trifling; as, a paltry excuse; paltry gold.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) She says that the spread of insecure, short-term contracts and part-time work, together with benefits cuts and paltry wage growth, have meant that many people in work are struggling to make ends meet.
  • (2) Let’s leave that discussion to another day, but imagine a combination of the two – sort of Transformers meets Ex Machina – in which a race of giant sexy robots battles it out with another race of really mean giant sexy robots while paltry human beings look on in awe, and teenage boys (and girls) experience incredibly conflicting and disturbing sensual awakenings in the front row of the Beckenham Odeon.
  • (3) Only Orange's pay monthly deals come with Wi-Fi access and they only include a paltry 750MB of Wi-Fi browsing – again through BT Openzone's network of hotspots.
  • (4) In 2010 Bedder 6 paid out total dividends of £1.68m — which saw Clarkson pocket a comparatively paltry £850,000 when his share is calculated and his annual service payment is added in — meaning his income from Bedder 6 has almost tripled year on year.
  • (5) A paltry 50g of brown rice takes up over a third of your daily calorie count.
  • (6) By his own lofty standards Cavendish's return of two stage wins from this year's Tour has been paltry and myriad signs of hitherto unseen fallibility, a team that is clearly not good enough to work in his service and suggestions that his star is on the wane will leave him with much to ponder.
  • (7) If the recession results in interest rates remaining low for years, as many in the City are now predicting, then annuity rates will also remain at paltry levels.
  • (8) Frontex’s annual budget is a paltry €90m (£65m).
  • (9) Russia and China , meanwhile, have contributed a paltry $17.8 million and $1.2 million, respectively.
  • (10) It is the result of rejecting the world of public disengagement and laissez faire that delivered one paltry gold medal in Atlanta just 16 years ago.
  • (11) The value has now decreased slightly and their share probably sits at a paltry $10m.
  • (12) In 1959, US intelligence estimates suggested that the USSR would be in possession of between 1,000 and 1,500 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) compared to America’s paltry 100.
  • (13) Co-operative customer #3 is making do with a paltry state pension, subsidising the cost of groceries with a fortnightly package from the local food bank and unable to afford energy bills.
  • (14) The food industry spends over £1bn a year on marketing in the UK, compared with the paltry £14m spent on the government's anti-obesity campaign.
  • (15) The Italians are earning paltry returns from knocking out white goods in competition with the Chinese and Koreans.
  • (16) A paltry £1,000 for each marginal Labour candidate hardly buys a poster site.
  • (17) The sums are so paltry that the animus seems deliberate.
  • (18) As he itemises the contents of the pawnbroker's shop ("a few old China cups; some modern vases, adorned with paltry paintings of three Spanish cavaliers playing three Spanish guitars; or a party of boors carousing: each boor with one leg painfully elevated in the air by way of expressing his perfect freedom and gaiety …") you sense that Dickens barely knows how to stop.
  • (19) Yet he went on to pretend a paltry array of stimuli will fix the problem: he cannot possibly believe that loose change from the petty cash will arrest the plunge in employment and growth.
  • (20) Growth for the UK in 2012 will be a paltry 0.6%, the IMF says.

Woeful


Definition:

  • (a.) Alt. of Woful

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Brazil, despite some woeful performances this year, is still the most successful international team but has not exactly been a political giant for most of its existence.
  • (2) Even if Honda manage to improve their woeful power unit and McLaren make improvements to their indifferent car, it is difficult to see the team running better than mid-table next term.
  • (3) The bill will allow same-sex marriage for the first time in the UK; it will offer the opportunity to convert civil partnerships to marriages; it will offer opt-in rights to religious establishments, with the exception of the Church of England; it will also allow transgender people to change their legal gender without dissolving their marriages (a woeful omission from earlier legislation).
  • (4) Herrera’s bending cross reached Depay and he punished Watford’s woeful marking by cushioning a firm volley past Heurelho Gomes.
  • (5) TOP-AND-BOTTOM-OF-THE-TABLE BEATINGS "Nottingham Forest's woeful 4-0 home defeat to Scunthorpe made me think: what's the worst defeat suffered by a team leading its league?"
  • (6) The woeful lack of clarity does not engender confidence and trust.
  • (7) His first touch is woeful and a shooting chance goes a begging.
  • (8) However, Nwofor capitalised on some woeful defending from Hanley in the 90th minute to sweep the ball home from close range.
  • (9) Labour’s communication strategy remains woeful, and it lacks the means to develop a grand narrative that ties this all together, or a way of getting out of the “but you caused the last crisis through your profligacy” trap.
  • (10) He’s a man that, at 22, clearly has the world at his feet.” Everton could not have wished for a better start as Villa’s woeful defending at set pieces was again exposed.
  • (11) This would be a woeful prospect when taken in isolation, but seems more reprehensible when we know that others with much greater liabilities (moral if not legal ones) are treated with kid gloves.
  • (12) Kevin Mountford of Moneysupermarket.com said most savers were still earning "very woeful rates" and could improve their returns by shopping around.
  • (13) "I've been shocked at how America's politicians have been cowed into a woeful, shameful virtual silence by the gun lobbyists and the all-powerful National Rifle Association in particular," Morgan said.
  • (14) The atomic lobby sometimes tries to pass off this woeful track record as ancient history, but it is not – just ask the Finns .
  • (15) Its computer systems are still woeful, with paper files still used more often than the tools of modern electronic case management.
  • (16) The figures in computing and engineering are woeful and I think that is to do with perceptions.
  • (17) I've gone for the 49ers 31-21, but I've had a pretty woeful playoffs as far as predictions go.
  • (18) Despite Cameron's promises that he would lead the campaign to empower women and ensure female equality, Britain ranks a woeful 65th in the world in terms of female representation in parliament behind Kazakhstan, Lesotho and even Afghanistan.
  • (19) Their own civil servants have already advised them that 40,000 more children would fall into poverty as a result of extending the cap (this is likely to be a woeful underestimate of the true figure).
  • (20) And the public accounts committee has decried the woeful success rate of his schemes.