measly

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: mea=sly

CIDE DICTIONARY

measly, a. 

•  Infected with measles.  [1913 Webster]
•  Containing larval tapeworms; -- said of pork and beef.  [1913 Webster]
•  Contemptibly small in quantity; meager; absurdly insufficient or bad; as, a measly few dollars for all that work.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

measly, adj. (measlier, measliest)
1 colloq. inferior, contemptible, worthless.
2 of or affected with measles.
3 (of pork) infested with tapeworms.

Etymology

MEASLES + -Y(1)

THESAURUS

measly

abject, abominable, allergic, anemic, apoplectic, arrant, arthritic, atrocious, base, beggarly, bilious, cancerous, cheesy, chlorotic, colicky, consumptive, contemptible, crummy, debased, degraded, depraved, despicable, dirty, disgusting, dropsical, dyspeptic, edematous, encephalitic, epileptic, execrable, flagrant, foul, fulsome, grave, gross, heinous, jerkwater, laryngitic, leprous, little, low, low-down, luetic, lumpen, malarial, malignant, mangy, mean, mingy, miserable, miserly, monstrous, nefarious, nephritic, neuralgic, neuritic, niggardly, niggling, obnoxious, odious, one-horse, palsied, paltry, paralytic, pathetic, pettifogging, petty, phthisic, picayune, picayunish, piddling, piffling, pleuritic, pneumonic, pocky, podagric, poky, poor, punk, puny, rachitic, rank, reptilian, rheumatic, rickety, scabby, scant, scanty, scorbutic, scrofulous, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, shabby, shoddy, skimpy, small, small-beer, small-time, sparse, squalid, stingy, tabetic, tabid, tinhorn, trifling, trivial, tubercular, tuberculous, tumorigenic, tumorous, two-bit, two-by-four, unmentionable, vile, wretched