(superl.) Imperfectly developed in size or vigor; small and feeble; inferior; petty.
(n.) A youth; a novice.
Example Sentences:
(1) She puts much of the ongoing disaster down to what she calls "a severe case of management capture", the puny powers possessed by the Co-op's members to hold anyone at the top to account, and its hopelessly complicated structure.
(2) He was so puny, not like the macho pictures you see of him riding a horse bareback, or fishing barechested," she said.
(3) When they first encounter their "admirer and pupil Zola" he strikes them as a "worn-out Normalien, at once sturdy and puny" but with "a vibrant note of pungent determination and furious energy".
(4) Then again, this is the Labour party we are talking about, and the policies supposed to lead us there are, so far, distinctly puny.
(5) As for forcing people to move, the new tax would be puny compared with the rates.
(6) Ministers keep boasting of the puny £100m transitional fund, supposed to tide charities over, but to what?
(7) (I say they, not we, because the Guardian is always a puny counterweight to these massed ranks on the right).
(8) Roosevelt's programme to rebuild war-torn Europe cost around 5% of US GDP – the lofty comparison only underlines the puniness of the euro version and elicits a snort of derision from newsrooms and trading floors across Europe.
(9) Abbott said the declaration of a caliphate showed that “Islamic State wants to emulate Mohammed whose early campaigns would have looked just as puny to the great powers of his day”.
(10) Those powers are puny compared to the ones they have willingly given away.
(11) When the American Film Institute bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award upon Lean in 1990 (he made the trip to LA despite failing health), Spielberg paid tribute from the stage, saying of Lawrence...: 'It made me feel puny.
(12) Such abilities could transform our puny electronic equipment into a new generation of micro-scale devices.
(13) In ways that are measurable on a daily basis the post of mayor, directly accountable to the electorate, has improved the quality of life for Londoners, even if in its early phase it had puny powers and deserves more now.
(14) Donald Trump barely capable of squeezing wealth on to puny official form On Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump announced that he had filed a personal financial disclosure with the Federal Election Commission, the last step needed to secure his presence on stage in the first Republican presidential debate in Cleveland on 6 August.
(15) Completely untroubled by United's puny attacking efforts after the opening 15 minutes, Barcelona kept swarming forward.
(16) But in 1908 their fortunes were on the up: Sydney had just got Charlie his break with the famous Fred Karno company and despite the impressario’s doubts about the “pale, puny, sullen-looking youngster”, he was an instant hit with audiences.
(17) So, too, have regional broadcasters whose vast workforces can dwarf their puny audience shares.
(18) The team's puny total of 15 Premier League goals should alarm City [West Brom and Blackpool have both scored more] and in the long term there must be an increased verve if they are to grasp some silverware.
(19) They have resorted to denial and to aligning themselves with the puny flag-waving of the Europhobes, who were out in force in this week's rebellion against David Cameron , hardly an arch federast.
(20) It had lost most of its territory in France and, in comparison to bold and dynamic Spain, was decidedly puny.
Twerp
Definition:
Example Sentences:
(1) Suzuki admitted to journalists he called Trudeau a twerp, and the Liberal leader dismissed his critique of the party’s climate policy as “sanctimonious crap”.
(2) Like a twerp I'd requested the tickets from former Hammer Rio Ferdinand ( @rioferdy5 ) via Twitter, a lamentable exploitation of fame that elicited a red tide of justifiable online indignation.
(3) Traitor was a barb he must have expected; he has also been branded a self-serving twerp (by the former head of MI5 Stella Rimington) , a naive narcissist, and perhaps strangest of all, a cross-dressing Little Red Riding Hood (in the Washington Post).
(4) I found those protests exciting, yes, because I was young and a bit of a twerp but also, I suppose, because there was a void in me.
(5) That twerp, all eyeliner and lager dithering up Chalk Farm Road under a back-combed barnet, the lips that I'd only seen clenching a fishwife fag and dribbling curses now a portal for this holy sound.
(6) Whether he is regarded as a whistleblower, a traitor, a self-serving twerp – as Rimington described him – or a hero, Snowden knew about encryption, and he knew how to keep things safe.