What's the difference between paltry and wretched?

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.

Wretched


Definition:

  • (a.) Very miserable; sunk in, or accompanied by, deep affliction or distress, as from want, anxiety, or grief; calamitous; woeful; very afflicting.
  • (a.) Worthless; paltry; very poor or mean; miserable; as, a wretched poem; a wretched cabin.
  • (a.) Hatefully contemptible; despicable; wicked.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Servicemen returning from their term of duty would land in San Diego and disappear into the hinterland rather than go home, finding refuge in drugs, alcohol or wretched anonymity.
  • (2) It was a wretched goal to concede and the unfortunate truth for Mignolet is that moment reminded us why many Liverpool supporters are perplexed he has been awarded a new five-year contract.
  • (3) We are Uncle Moneybags compared with the wretches who live in Ireland and the United States, where unemployment is higher than it is in Britain.
  • (4) Admittedly we've had the odd wretched experience – the long wait in casualty or for a bedpan, the horrid puréed dinners, the lost notes – but ultimately we've all been looked after, cured and called back for check-ups and therapies.
  • (5) Craig Gardner sent a header wide and had a strong claim for a penalty turned down, but West Brom were wretched, and Tony Pulis made two changes at half-time, Chris Brunt coming on for the injured Darren Fletcher, and Salomón Rondón joining the hitherto isolated Victor Anichebe up front after replacing Jonas Olsson.
  • (6) While Everton mourned Howard Kendall , the architect of two title-winning teams, Van Gaal illustrated the influence an elite manager can have as, from the ruins of a wretched performance in London, he fashioned a more pragmatic, more athletic side.
  • (7) Kathimerini has the details : Pulled up,,,for using derogatory language, Iliopoulos went further, condemning fellow MPs as "wretched sell-outs" and "goats".
  • (8) It had been a wretched semi-final until those moments when the players lined up in the centre circle for that last test of nerve and Holland should not just reflect on the inability of Ron Vlaar and Wesley Sneijder to beat the Argentina goalkeeper, Sergio Romero, but also the fact their entire team did not manage a single shot on target during the 120 minutes that preceded the shootout.
  • (9) The wretched miscreants that swamp Quinn, Sarkeesian and others with vile threats every time they post a video, a story or a tweet, have come to symbolise community.
  • (10) He is best remembered, however, for his four books: Black Skin, White Masks; Toward the African Revolution; A Dying Colonialism; and The Wretched of the Earth.
  • (11) He could take the most pitiful souls – his CV was populated almost exclusively by snivelling wretches, insufferable prigs, braggarts and outright bullies – and imbue each of them with a wrenching humanity.
  • (12) Updated at 10.18pm BST 10.15pm BST 58 min: Rather than play the ball to his team-mate Bernard, who was in a better position on the left-hand side of the penalty area, the wretched Fred shoots weakly from distance, straight at Neuer.
  • (13) What is clear is that 31-year-old Lynn led an "unimaginably wretched" life through illness which led her to attempt suicide, consider ending her days at Dignitas, the Swiss-based assisted suicide clinic, and sign a "living will" after saying she "feared degeneration and indignity far more than I fear death".
  • (14) Photograph: AAP In her famous 1913 pamphlet, Round about a pound a week , Maud Pember Reeves wrote contemptuously about “the gospel of porridge” – the idea, still common among the wealthy, that the destitute wouldn’t be so wretched if only they invested their money wisely.
  • (15) It’s a wretched character, and a truly hateful performance.
  • (16) So after six days of sustained assault by the world's fourth largest military power on one of its most wretched and overcrowded territories, at least 130 Palestinians had been killed, an estimated half of them civilians, along with five Israelis.
  • (17) Once again, though, wretched defending cost Celtic any chance of saving the match, let alone the tie.
  • (18) What does the phrase mean, apart from a wretched violation of the English language in a way that makes a good argument for corporal punishment?
  • (19) It's so full of the river, and the sense of the city, and a huge stretch of London society, and so grand in its vision that perhaps we forget how gloriously funny it is – the Boffins deciding to go in for history, and buying a big book ("His name is Decline-And-Fall-Off-The-Rooshan-Empire") or the captivating Lady Tippins ("You wretch!
  • (20) Williamson was not the only player sent off on a wretched day for the visitors, who also had Daryl Janmaat dismissed in the last minute for a second bookable offence.