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View synonyms for gaunt

gaunt

1

[ gawnt ]

adjective

, gaunt·er, gaunt·est.
  1. extremely thin and bony; haggard and drawn, as from great hunger, weariness, or torture; emaciated.

    Synonyms: rawboned, angular, lank, scrawny, spare, lean

    Antonyms: stout

  2. bleak, desolate, or grim, as places or things:

    a gaunt, windswept landscape.



Gaunt

2

[ gawnt, gahnt ]

noun

  1. John of. John of Gaunt.

gaunt

/ ɡɔːnt /

adjective

  1. bony and emaciated in appearance
  2. (of places) bleak or desolate


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Derived Forms

  • ˈgauntness, noun
  • ˈgauntly, adverb

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Other Words From

  • gauntly adverb
  • gauntness noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of gaunt1

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, probably from Old French gaunet, jaunet “yellowish,” derivative of gaune, jaune “yellow,” from Latin galbinus “greenish-yellow”

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Word History and Origins

Origin of gaunt1

C15: perhaps of Scandinavian origin; compare Norwegian dialect gand tall lean person

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Synonym Study

See thin.

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Example Sentences

You start losing all this weight and looking gaunt and frail.

One day I was stunned to see that a particular favorite was a gaunt chain-smoker.

In order to play the gaunt Woodroof, McConaughey went from 182 pounds to 135, subsisting on what he calls “a controlled diet.”

Hashi came in first, wearing a white kufi and looking gaunt, reportedly from a hunger strike.

In the small living room where we last met, he seemed more gaunt than wiry, his ear bandaged after a biopsy.

Charred beams and blackened walls showed stark and gaunt in the glow of a smoldering mass of wreckage.

The Seneschal stood with blanched face and gaping mouth, his fire all turned to ashes before the passion of this gaunt man.

A gaunt, hard-featured domestic completed this interesting family, and she was uncommon too.

The little name sounded so incongruous; it did not suit the big gaunt woman who had almost a touch of the monstrous in her.

He was tall and gaunt, with an unnaturally white face and a mass of hair almost as white in color, though not from age.

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