The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

paltry \pal"try\ (p[add]l"tr[y^]), a. [Compar. Paltrier
   (p[add]l"tr[i^]*[~e]r); superl. Paltriest.] [Cf. Prov. E.
   paltry refuse, rubbish, LG. palterig ragged, palte, palter, a
   rag, a tatter, Dan. pialt, Sw. palta, pl. paltor.]
   Mean; vile; worthless; despicable; contemptible; pitiful;
   trifling; as, a paltry excuse; paltry gold. --Cowper.
   [1913 Webster]

         The paltry prize is hardly worth the cost. --Byron.
   [1913 Webster]

   Syn: See Contemptible.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

paltry
    adj 1: not worth considering; "he considered the prize too
           paltry for the lives it must cost"; "piffling efforts";
           "a trifling matter" [syn: negligible, paltry,
           trifling]
    2: contemptibly small in amount; "a measly tip"; "the company
       donated a miserable $100 for flood relief"; "a paltry wage";
       "almost depleted his miserable store of dried beans" [syn:
       measly, miserable, paltry]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

148 Moby Thesaurus words for "paltry":
   Lenten, Mickey Mouse, Spartan, abject, abominable, abstemious,
   arrant, ascetic, atrocious, austere, base, beggarly,
   beneath contempt, borne, cheap, cheesy, coarse, common,
   contemptible, crummy, debased, degraded, depraved, despicable,
   dirty, disgusting, dwarfed, dwarfish, execrable, exiguous,
   flagrant, foul, fourth-class, frugal, fulsome, gaudy, gimcracky,
   grave, gross, heinous, illiberal, impoverished, inconsequential,
   inconsiderable, ineffectual, inferior, insignificant, irregular,
   jejune, lean, limited, little, low, low-class, low-down, low-grade,
   low-quality, low-test, lumpen, mangy, meager, mean, measly,
   meretricious, mingy, miserable, miserly, monstrous, narrow,
   nefarious, niggardly, obnoxious, odious, parsimonious, pathetic,
   petty, picayune, piddling, pitiable, pitiful, poky, poor, punk,
   puny, rank, reptilian, rubbishy, sad, scabby, scant, scanty,
   scrawny, scrimp, scrimpy, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy,
   second-best, second-class, seedy, set, shabby, shoddy, skimp,
   skimpy, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, small, sorry, spare,
   sparing, squalid, starvation, stingy, stinted, straitened, stunted,
   subsistence, tacky, tatty, thin, third-class, third-rate, tinny,
   trashy, trifling, trivial, trumpery, two-for-a-cent,
   two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, unchivalrous,
   ungenerous, unimportant, unmentionable, unnourishing, unnutritious,
   valueless, vile, watered, watery, worthless, wretched