meager

[ mee-ger ]

/ ˈmi gər /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR meager ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

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.

maigre.

RELATED WORDS

barely, inadequately, skimpily

Nearby words

Also especially British, mea·gre.

Origin of meager

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

SYNONYMS FOR meager

1. See scanty. 2. gaunt, spare, skinny.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR meager ON THESAURUS.COM

Related formsmea·ger·ly, adverbmea·ger·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for meagerly

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

Word Origin and History for meagerly

meagerly

adv.

also meagrely, 1580s, from meager + -ly (2).

meager

adj.

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.

meager

adjective

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RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of meager

Examples from the Web for meagerly

meagerly

meager