The word "measly" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it as an adjective to describe something that is very small, or of very little worth or value. For example: "The measly amount of money he gave me wasn't nearly enough to cover my expenses."
That's been my situation for the last few weeks, and the only reason I've managed to even read a few measly pages this past month is because of the playlists I've created to listen to as I read.
Those who truffle for surprise winners among the rank outsiders will be on excellent terms with themselves this morning and will scoff at the idea of backing a horse at the measly odds of 7-4 but Golden Horn (4.30) is the class act in today's line-up and can give Frankie Dettori a second taste of Derby glory.
Labour's rather contorted effort to gain political capital from the event, with their photos of dogs sniffing out Letwin, scored a measly 7%, with an (admittedly rather juvenile) picture of Hague cuddling an equally bald baby coming out on top with 40%.
And American aid is not concentrated on countries with good economic policies: its measly African aid budget is scattered across numerous countries, many of them badly governed.
Expansion in Mexico declined to a measly 1.9%, down from 5.1% in the year to the first quarter.
Retail investors, disappointed with measly returns on savings accounts, are piling into corporate-bond funds.
On those reserves, banks receive a measly 2% in interest.
The central European economies shrank by an average of 3.6% in 2009, and the World Bank expects them to grow by a measly 1.6% this year.
Recent British Film Institute data show that the number of documentaries released in British cinemas has grown steadily every year over the last decade, from a measly four in 2001 to 86 last year.
TO WESTERN bankers grappling with falling revenues and measly profits, bankers in Asia live in paradise.
It is a potent magnet for those millions of country people who can barely live off the measly landholdings available to them.
