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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Meager

Meager \Mea"ger\, Meagre \Mea"gre\, a. [OE. merge, F. maigre, L. macer; akin to D. & G. mager, Icel. magr, and prob. to Gr. makro`s 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; as, meager resources; meager fare. Opposite of ample. [WordNet sense 1] [Narrower terms: exiguous] [Narrower terms: hardscrabble, marginal] [Narrower terms: measly, miserable, paltry] ``Meager soil.''
    --Dryden.

    Syn: meagre, meagerly, scanty.

    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.

  4. less than a desirable amount; -- of items distributed from a larger supply. [WordNet sense 2]

    Syn: scrimpy, skimpy, skimping.

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

Meager

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

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
meager

late 14c. (late 12c. as a surname), "lean, thin, emaciated" (of persons or animals), from Old French megre, maigre "thin" (12c.), from Latin macrum (nominative macer) "lean, thin" (source of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian magro), from PIE *makro- (see macro-). Of material things (land, food, etc.) from early 15c. Cognate Germanic words (Old Norse magr "thin," Old High German magar, German mager, Middle Dutch magher, Dutch mager, Old English mæger) come directly from the PIE root via Proto-Germanic *magras and are not from Latin.

Wiktionary
meager
  1. 1 Having little flesh; lean; thin. 2 Poor, deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent; paltry; scanty; inadequate; unsatisfying. v

  2. (context transitive English) To make lean.

WordNet
meager
  1. adj. deficient in amount or quality or extent; "meager resources"; "meager fare" [syn: meagre, meagerly] [ant: ample]

  2. barely adequate; "a meager allowance" [syn: scrimpy]

Wikipedia
Meager

Meager or Meagre may refer to:

  • Meagre set (also meager set) in mathematics
  • Mount Meager (also Mount Meagre, Mount Meagher) in British Columbia, Canada
  • Meager Creek, a creek in British Columbia, Canada
  • Meagre, Argyrosomus regius, a fish

Usage examples of "meager".

Hush earned a meager living selling wagonloads of apples to the townsfolk every fall.

They had hastily arranged their meager defenses in a circle, surrounding their scant supplies and improvising the use of the Boeotian engines as they had seen the troops practicing.

When Lou Calabrese laughed, it was impossible to remember that the temperature was well below freezing, and that an arctic blast was buffeting the four meager walls around them.

Prince Conrig, riding with Cloudfell and Catclaw so as to be in the fore of the assault, possessed too meager a talent to grasp the message.

This one obviously earned a meager living in Chiba City handling excess power surges for the otaku collective.

Harding ate a little of the grouse, and the rest was divided among his companions, who found it but a meager breakfast, for they were suffering extremely from hunger.

The Statue of Franchise stood on her rock at the point of Hightown, as proud as a pennywhistle, but we stayed close to the Eastside shore, where the sparse cottages and meager yards competed for space with the ever-growing menace of commercial docks, sweatshops and polluted air.

This meager reference to brainless animals, whoso knots of ganglia throughout their bodies act automatically as little brains, shows that instinct arises simultaneously with the development of the functions over which it presides.

William was over by the rather sparse pile of loot that had been accumulating over the last hour, rummaging through it with Armand du Gaz who, as one of the few knights who could both read and write, was trying to inventory the meager haul.

They approached and stood before her, hesitant, and seeing how faint the movement was in her chest, watching the meager rise and collapse of the housedress, they felt a little frightened.

Imredy and Kanya traveled to Berchtesgaden, but meager notices were issued as to the happenings at the negotiations.

Although emaciated and a longtime sufferer from tuberculosis, Kolbe gave away most of his meager rations to other prisoners.

The other young man, whom Elven had first seen driving the cattle and who answered to the name of Kors, now brought armfuls of knotty wood, which he fed to the meager fire, so that it crackled up in rich yellows and reds.

And from then on fact had been added to meager fact and the censorship of that single telegram had avalanched into a harrowing afternoon-long session of give-and-take, of logrolling, bullying, factions and secret votes until Ferrante and his chief had to face the sickening truth of the matter: that they must league with the English in view of a highly probable common peril.

And from then on, fact had been added to meager fact, and the censorship of that single telegram had avalanched into a harrowing afternoon-long session of give-and-take, of logrolling, bullying, factions and secret votes, until Ferrante and his chief had to face the sickening truth of the matter: that they must league with the English, in view of a highly probable common peril.