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6 dictionary results for: Meager

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

mea·ger

[mee-ger] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

1.	deficient in quantity or quality; lacking fullness or richness; scanty; inadequate: a meager salary; meager fare; a meager harvest.

2.	having little flesh; lean; thin: a body meager with hunger.

maigre.

Also, especially British, meagre.

[Origin: 1300–50; ME megre < OF maigre < L macer lean

]

—Related forms

mea·ger·ly, adverb

mea·ger·ness, noun

—Synonyms 1. See scanty. 2. gaunt, spare, skinny.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

mea·ger also mea·gre (mē'gər) Pronunciation Key
adj.

Deficient in quantity, fullness, or extent; scanty.
Deficient in richness, fertility, or vigor; feeble: the meager soil of an eroded plain.
Having little flesh; lean.

[Middle English megre, thin, from Old French, from Latin macer; see māk- in Indo-European roots.]

mea'ger·ly adv., mea'ger·ness n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
meager

c.1300, "lean, thin, emaciated" (of persons or animals), from O.Fr. megre, maigre, from L. macrum (nom. macer) "lean, thin," from PIE *makro- (see macro-). Of material things (land, food, etc.) from 1501.

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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

meager
adjective
deficient in amount or quality or extent; "meager resources"; "meager fare" [ant: ample]

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Meager

Mea"ger\, Meagre \Mea"gre\, a. [OE. merge, F. maigre, L. macer; akin to D. & G. mager, Icel. magr, and prob. to Gr. ? long. Cf. Emaciate, Maigre.]

1. Destitue of, or having little, flesh; lean.

Meager were his looks; Sharp misery had worn him to the bones. --Shak.

2. Destitute of richness, fertility, strength, or the like; defective in quantity, or poor in quality; poor; barren; scanty in ideas; wanting strength of diction or affluence of imagery. "Meager soil." --Dryden.

Of secular habits and meager religious belief. --I. Taylor.

His education had been but meager. --Motley.

3. (Min.) Dry and harsh to the touch, as chalk.

Syn: Thin; lean; lank; gaunt; starved; hungry; poor; emaciated; scanty; barren.

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Meager

Mea"ger\, Meagre \Mea"gre\, v. t. To make lean. [Obs.]

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