Meager \Mea"ger\, Meagre \Mea"gre\, a. [OE. merge, F. maigre, L.
macer; akin to D. & G. mager, Icel. magr, and prob. to Gr.
makro`s long. Cf. Emaciate, Maigre.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Destitue of, or having little, flesh; lean.
[1913 Webster]
Meager were his looks;
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Destitute of richness, fertility, strength, or the like;
defective in quantity, or poor in quality; poor; barren;
scanty in ideas; wanting strength of diction or affluence
of imagery; as, meager resources; meager fare. Opposite of
ample. [WordNet sense 1] [Narrower terms: exiguous]
[Narrower terms: hardscrabble, marginal] [Narrower
terms: measly, miserable, paltry] "Meager soil."
--Dryden.
Syn: meagre, meagerly, scanty.
[1913 Webster]
Of secular habits and meager religious belief.
--I. Taylor.
[1913 Webster]
His education had been but meager. --Motley.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Min.) Dry and harsh to the touch, as chalk.
[1913 Webster]
4. less than a desirable amount; -- of items distributed from
a larger supply. [WordNet sense 2]
Syn: scrimpy, skimpy, skimping.
[WordNet 1.5]
Syn: Thin; lean; lank; gaunt; starved; hungry; poor;
emaciated; scanty; barren.
[1913 Webster] Meager
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Meager \Mea"ger\, Meagre \Mea"gre\, v. t.
To make lean. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
meager
adj 1: deficient in amount or quality or extent; "meager
resources"; "meager fare" [syn: meagre, meagerly]
[ant: ample]
2: barely adequate; "a meager allowance" [syn: scrimpy]
WordNet (r) 2.0
155 Moby Thesaurus words for "meager":
Lenten, Lilliputian, Spartan, Tom Thumb, abstemious, angular,
angustifoliate, angustirostrate, angustisellate, angustiseptal,
ascetic, austere, bare, bony, cheeseparing, chinchy, chintzy,
circumscribed, close, close-fitting, confined, constricted, cramp,
cramped, crowded, cursory, deficient, depthless, dumpy, dwarf,
dwarfed, dwarfish, elfin, exiguous, few, flat, flat-chested,
fleshless, footling, frugal, gangling, gangly, gaunt, gawky,
impoverished, inadequate, inappreciable, incapacious, incipient,
incommodious, inconsequential, inconsiderable, infrequent,
insignificant, insufficient, isthmian, isthmic, jejune, lank,
lanky, lean, lean-fleshed, lean-looking, limited, little, low,
mean, mere, midget, miniature, minimum, miserable, miserly, nanoid,
narrow, near, negligible, niggardly, no great shakes, paltry,
parsimonious, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddling, poor, puny,
pygmy, rare, rawboned, restricted, rudimental, rudimentary, runty,
scant, scanty, scarce, scattered, scraggy, scrawny, scrimp,
scrimping, scrimpy, scrubby, seldom met with, seldom seen, shabby,
shallow, short, shriveled, shrunk, shrunken, skeletal, skimp,
skimping, skimpy, skin-deep, skinny, slender, slight, slim, small,
spare, sparing, sparse, spidery, spindling, spindly, spotty,
sprinkled, squat, starvation, stingy, stinted, strait, straitened,
stunted, subsistence, superficial, thin, thin-bellied,
thin-fleshed, tight, tiny, trifling, trivial, twiggy, undersize,
undersized, underweight, unnourishing, unnutritious, watered,
watery, wizened
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
meagerly, meagre, scrimpy
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