meager
AmericanRelated Words
See scanty.
Other Word Forms
- meagerly adverb
- meagerness noun
Etymology
Origin of meager
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English megre, from Old French maigre, from Latin macer “lean”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some people wanted to see Simpson punished, while others viewed his acquittal as vindication, however meager, for decades’ worth of societal abuse.
From Salon
When he’s not strong-arming unsuspecting customers into hidden upcharges for their cars, he’s trying to gain some control in his meager, unsatisfied life.
From Salon
“Don’t speak of what I said to you. I cannot bear the shame. I would apologize, but words are too meager. There is no excuse for it. Firing me only begins to right the wrong.”
From Literature
Without the annual floods, the soil was soon stripped of its richness, but with their meager harvests they could not afford to buy artificial fertilizers.
From Literature
ADP said businesses created a meager 22,000 new jobs in January, suggesting little improvement in a fragile labor market in which work has become much harder to find.
From MarketWatch
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.
