meager

[ mee-ger ]
See synonyms for meager on Thesaurus.com
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.

Origin of meager

1
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English megre, from Old French maigre, from Latin macer “lean”
  • Also especially British, mea·gre .

synonym study For meager

1. See scanty.

Other words for meager

Other words from meager

  • mea·ger·ly, adverb
  • mea·ger·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use meager in a sentence

  • It was a dwelling place of unusual pretentiousness for that land of "Do-without," where inexorable meagerness is the rule of life.

    A Pagan of the Hills | Charles Neville Buck
  • Atilio was giving vent to his melancholy by lamenting the meagerness of the afternoon tea.

    The Enemies of Women | Vicente Blasco Ibez
  • The meagerness and triteness of the music and piece astonished me.

    Records of a Girlhood | Frances Ann Kemble
  • We recognize its meagerness; we see in it the timidity of politicians; but beyond and through all, we see a promise of the future.

  • The brevity and meagerness of these official reports often leave one puzzled as to their meaning.

    The Opium Monopoly | Ellen Newbold La Motte