• (British) IPA: /pjuːni/

puny (comparative punier, superlative puniest)

1. Of inferior size, strength or significance; small, weak, ineffective.

   You puny earthlings are no match for Ming the Merciless!

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance)​​, William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     A puny subject strikes at thy great glory.

   • Breezes laugh to scorn our puny speed.

• See also Thesaurus:scrawny

• French: chétif, frêle
• German: kümmerlich, schwächlich, klein, mickrig, kläglich
• Italian: gracile, sparuto
• Portuguese: franzino, fraco, pequeno
• Russian: кро́хотный
• Spanish: flojo, tirillas, gualtrapas

puny (plural punies)

1. (obsolete, Oxford University slang) A new pupil at a school etc.; a junior student.
2. (obsolete) A younger person.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:

     a law that the eldest or first borne child shall succeed and inherit all: where nothing at all is reserved for Punies, but obedience […].

3. (obsolete) A beginner, a novice.
4. (archaic) An inferior person; a subordinate.

• (new pupil) fresher, freshman, new bug, novi (Tonbridge School), shadow (Westminster School)
• (beginner) newb, rookie, tenderfoot; see also Thesaurus:beginner
• (subordinate) junior, underling, vassal