gaunt
[gawnt]
- extremely thin and bony; haggard and drawn, as from great hunger, weariness, or torture; emaciated.
- bleak, desolate, or grim, as places or things: a gaunt, windswept landscape.
Show More
Origin of gaunt
1400–50; late Middle English, probably < Old French gaunet, jaunet yellowish, derivative of gaune, jaune yellow < Latin galbinus greenish-yellow
Synonyms
See more synonyms for gaunt on Thesaurus.com1. lean, spare, scrawny, lank, angular, rawboned. See thin.
Antonyms
1. stout.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for gauntly
Contemporary Examples
The visual imagination is gauntly beautiful, but none of it feels particularly terrifying.
Historical Examples
He was as gauntly handsome as a Blackfoot—and they don't come any better-looking than that.
Call Him SavageJohn Pollard
From the lower control room windows Gerry could see only drifted snow and naked boulders, and the gauntly lonely peaks.
The Golden Amazons of VenusJohn Murray Reynolds
gaunt
- bony and emaciated in appearance
- (of places) bleak or desolate
Show More
Word Origin
C15: perhaps of Scandinavian origin; compare Norwegian dialect gand tall lean person
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for gauntly
gaunt
adj.
mid-15c. (as a surname from mid-13c.), from Middle French gant, of uncertain origin; perhaps from a Scandinavian source (cf. Old Norse gand "a thin stick," also "a tall thin man") and somehow connected with the root of gander. Connection also has been suggested to Old French jaunet "yellowish" [Middle English Dictionary].
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper