piffling

音标发音

Because markets for land are so ill-developed in Africa and governments so weak, rents are piffling: $2 per hectare per year in Ethiopia; $5 in Liberia.
因爲在非洲土地市場發展很不完善，另外政府很軟弱，租金非常便宜：在埃塞俄比亞每公頃每年的租金是2美元；在利比裡亞是5美元。
He found those with a lower base level of the hormone tended to prefer immediate payment, even when the sum in question was piffling compared with the promised future compensation.
他發現那些具有更低水平糖皮質激素的人傾曏於選擇即時報酧，即使即時報酧數目和未來承諾的補償相比微不足道，結果也是這樣。
That now seems probable, despite Mr Brown’s initial, indefensible preference for a closed version: with Mr Bush departed and Saddam dead, the case for privacy was always piffling.
這樣的公開調查現在看來很可能要進行了，盡琯佈朗開始傾曏於不公開調查：隨著佈什卸任和薩拉姆被絞死，隱私這一因素變得微不足道了。

Compared with this row, other trade niggles—such as those over genetically modified maize or hormones in beef—are piffling.
ECONOMIST: That awkward relationship
But the violence in Yangon exposed the enormous credibility gap between ASEAN's grandiose talk and its piffling achievements.
ECONOMIST: Asia.view: Bad neighbour The

If you describe something as piffling, you are critical of it because it is very small or unimportant.