Meaning
Mere; measly; only a small, insufficient amount. 'Dege-dege' stresses how little or paltry something is: 'two dege-dege dollar' is a measly two dollars, and 'a dege-dege likkle piece' is just a tiny, ungenerous bit. The doubling drives home the smallness and the disappointment of it, and the word carries a note of scorn or complaint at how meagre and inadequate a portion, a sum, or an offering is. It is the everyday way of grumbling that a thing amounts to next to nothing.
Examples
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Him gi mi two dege-dege dollar.
He gave me a measly two dollars.
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A dege-dege likkle piece a bread lef.
Only a tiny little piece of bread is left.
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Yuh cyaa live pon dege-dege wages.
You can't live on such measly wages.
Origin
A reduplicated word of African derivation meaning small/insufficient; the doubling stresses how paltry the amount is.
How it’s used
Emphasises scarcity or paltriness. Also heard as 'deggeh-deggeh' or shortened to 'dege'.