meager

[mee-ger]

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.

Also especially British, mea·gre.

Origin of meager

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

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

Synonyms for meager

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR meager ON THESAURUS.COM

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

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

Related Words for meagerly

barely, inadequately, skimpily

Examples from the Web for meagerly

Historical Examples of meagerly

In the evening he complimented Alfred meagerly on his proficiency as a whip.
Watch Yourself Go By
Al. G. Field
There were several forts in the Indian country, but they were meagerly garrisoned.
Four American Indians
Edson L. Whitney
It was a tiny room, whitewashed; meagerly and nondescriptly furnished.
Out of the Air
Inez Haynes Irwin
The Romans were perhaps the first who introduced that art into Britain, meagerly as they did introduce it.
On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening,
Samuel Felton
They found nothing but two meagerly furnished houses, apparently recently deserted.
Motor Matt's Air Ship
Stanley R. Matthews

Word Origin and History for 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.