Nearby Words

gaunt

[gawnt] Example Sentences Origin

gaunt

[gawnt]
adjective, -er, -est.
1.
extremely thin and bony; haggard and drawn, as from great hunger, weariness, or torture; emaciated.
2.
bleak, desolate, or grim, as places or things: a gaunt, windswept landscape.

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English, probably < Old French gaunet, jaunet yellowish, derivative of gaune, jaune yellow < Latin galbinus greenish-yellow

gaunt·ly, adverb
gaunt·ness, noun


1. lean, spare, scrawny, lank, angular, rawboned. See thin.


1. stout.

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Gaunt is always a great word to know.
So is gobo. Does it mean:
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
Example Sentences
  • Pale and gaunt, he stood there, having endured three years of pretrial solitary confinement.
  • All were slim and gaunt.
  • Today, the landscape is still littered with the gaunt ventilation shafts of mines past, but not present.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged

Gaunt

[gawnt, gahnt]
noun
John of. John of Gaunt.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To gaunt
Collins
World English Dictionary
gaunt (ɡɔːnt)
 
adj
1.  bony and emaciated in appearance
2.  (of places) bleak or desolate
 
[C15: perhaps of Scandinavian origin; compare Norwegian dialect gand tall lean person]
 
'gauntly
 
adv
 
'gauntness
 
n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

gaunt
1440, from M.Fr. gant, of uncertain origin; perhaps from a Scand. source (cf. O.N. gand "a thin stick," also "a tall thin man").
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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