meager

[ mee-ger ]

/ ˈmi gər /

deficient in quantity or quality; lacking fullness or richness; scanty; inadequate: a meager salary; meager fare; a meager harvest.

having little flesh; lean; thin: a body meager with hunger.

RELATED WORDS

Also especially British, mea·gre.

1300–50; Middle English megre < Old French maigre < Latin macer lean

1 See scanty.

2 gaunt, spare, skinny.

mea·ger·ly, adverbmea·ger·ness, noun

No association is so humdrum that it cannot be quickened into life, no matter how long it has been meagerly taking its course.
The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book|Various
In too many instances, the sublimity of genius was meagerly illustrated by these aspirants for notoriety.
The American Gentleman's Guide to Politeness and Fashion|Henry Lunettes
It was a tiny room, whitewashed; meagerly and nondescriptly furnished.
Out of the Air|Inez Haynes Irwin
They were all children, meagerly clothed, badly nourished, ill developed.
And Thus He Came|Cyrus Townsend Brady

In France, indeed, if one did not do a great many things before breakfast, the work of life would be but meagerly performed.
The Galaxy|Various