pittance Definition
pit·tance (pit′'ns)
noun
- a small or barely sufficient allowance of money
- any small amount or share
Etymology: ME pitaunce < OFr pitance, portion of food allowed a monk < ML pietantia < LL(Ec) pietas: see piety
pittance Synonyms
pittance Usage Examples
Preposition: of
- wage: This entire process ensured maximum employment at, I am sure, a pittance of a wage.
- food: Indeed the work which obtains the scanty pittance of food is for the most part excessively prolonged.
Converse of object
- earn: People earning a pittance will take years just to save this small amount.
- compare: It was costing a mere pittance compared with some other ill-fated government-aided schemes, e.g. The foolish Greenwich Dome!
- pay: They were paid a pittance for lace made by the yard, .
- receive: Chinese or Indian or Bolivian workers receive a pittance in wages.
- get: At the moment I get a pittance for pay yet I pay an immense amount of council tax.
- cost: Suzuki Swift: Tiny revolution It looks like the Mini's little brother, bristles with technology and costs a pittance.
Adjective modifier
- mere: Wardle received a small remuneration from the RCA, a mere pittance considering the work he did for the Association.
- miserable: Put them in to poor accommodation and gave them a miserable pittance to try and feed and clothe themselves.
- small: Result - a small pittance after the council had taken its cut for unpaid nursing care.
- relative: Was Danny Crow really not worth a chance on the back of relegation, especially given his relative pittance of a salary?
- scanty: Indeed the work which obtains the scanty pittance of food is for the most part excessively prolonged.
Modifies a noun
wage: I only wish we had been given ' middle-class ' values, instead of simple working-class ones i.e. to work hard for pittance wages.
Preposition: in
wage: Chinese or Indian or Bolivian workers receive a pittance in wages.
Browse dictionary entries near pittance
- ‹ Pitt
- ‹ Pitot tube
- ‹ Pitot-static tube
- ‹ piton
- ‹ pitman
- ‹ pitiless
- ‹ pitiful
- ‹ pitier
- ‹ pitiable
- ‹ pithy
- pitted ›
- pitter-patter ›
- pittosporum ›
- Pittsburgh ›
- pituitary ›
- pity ›
- pitying ›
- pityriasis ›
- Pius ›
- Piute ›

