bony and emaciated in appearance
(of places) bleak or desolate
See thin.
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”
The word gaunt means extremely bony or thin, often from weariness, suffering, or hunger. A place that is described as gaunt may look deserted, harsh, or just very plain. A stark, desolate landscape may be described as gaunt: harsh, barren, seemingly lifeless. If a group of hikers get lost for weeks in such a wilderness, surviving with little food or warmth, they would likely start to look gaunt: haggard, perhaps a bit skeletal. When they spy a gaunt old fortress on a hilltop, they'd probably ignore the fact that it looks abandoned, gloomy, even forbidding, and knock on the door to seek help. Don't worry — the gaunt-faced woman inside the mansion turns out to be a lovely person, who offers warmth and refuge.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Heaps, looking gaunt and frail in an orange jail shirt and pants, showed almost no reaction as he was sentenced.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2026
Located by the Journal, Hammani today is a gaunt 28-year-old serving in the security forces of Syria’s new government.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 29, 2025
Other prisoners have appeared gaunt and almost unrecognisable.
From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2025
As prisoners exited a Red Cross bus in Ramallah, many draped in traditional Keffiyeh scarves, they were met by raucous cheers - but many looked pale and gaunt, with some struggling to walk.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2025
The episode of paralysis leaves him gaunt, weaker than ever, drained of life.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
There’s a healthy place for AI in business communications, Gaunt says: crisis communicators can use it as a “devil’s advocate” when evaluating approaches or stress-testing strategies.
From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026
Mr Gaunt says the police "rarely if ever" attend when called - and the first thing they ask is if the criminal is "still on site".
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2024
Gaunt men and “children, big-eyed and thin,” walked up and clutched the rabbi’s raincoat.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2024
The danger of responding is the likelihood that zombies are playing “it’s over, come on over” relationship games, said Janice Gaunt, a Dallas, Texas-based licensed professional counselor.
From Washington Times ● May 28, 2023
“So!” said Gaunt triumphantly, as though he had just proved a complicated point beyond all possible dispute.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
For the last two-thirds of the film we mainly follow the wanderings of Garfield’s Father Rodrigues, who grows ever gaunter, more ragged, and more spiritually bereft.
From Slate ● Dec. 22, 2016
In his campaign posters, Billy's face is sleekly handsome; the reality seems gaunter and more impressive�deep-set, remote blue eyes, sharp nose and cheekbones, matted blond hair.
From Time Magazine Archive
Looking greyer, gaunter, grimmer than ever, Utah's 70-year-old Senator Reed Smoot arose behind his paper-cluttered aisle desk last week to perform an important function.
From Time Magazine Archive
Now it was Lind say, gaunter and grayer after. four years of grappling with crises, who seemed like a man on the defensive.
From Time Magazine Archive
She cried out when next she saw him, for between this and their next meeting he had grown gaunter, more nervous, sharper in voice and gesture.
From Moor Fires by Young, E. H. (Emily Hilda)
At last even the gauntest of them filled up and left the room and we were free to sit at "the second table" and eat, while the men rested outside.
From A Son of the Middle Border by Garland, Hamlin
One part of the lane he could see plainly, and into it stalked Joel Creech, leading the leanest and gauntest ponies Slone had ever seen.
From Wildfire by Grey, Zane
It will be the rawest, gauntest, ungainliest brute that ever scared the motor-bicycles on the Northampton Road.
From The Research Magnificent by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
