meager
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Alternative forms
- meagre (Commonwealth English)
[edit] Etymology
From Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer. Akin to Old English mæġer (“meager, lean”), Dutch, German mager, Old Norse magr whence the Icelandic magur.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Adjective
meager (comparative meagerer, superlative meagerest)
- Having little flesh; lean; thin.
- Poor, deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent; paltry; scanty; inadequate; unsatisfying.
- A meager piece of cake in one bite.
- 1607, Thomas Walkington, The Optick Glasse of Humors, or, The touchstone of a golden temperature, or ...[1], page 54:
- ...that begets many ugly and deformed phantasies in the braine, which being also hot and drie in the second extenuates and makes meager the body extraordinarily, ...
- 1637, William Shakespeare, The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice: With the extreame crueltie of Shylocke...[2], page E5:
- Nor none of thee thou pale and common drudge tween man and man: but thou, thou meager lead which rather threatnest then dost promise ought...
[edit] Synonyms
- See also Wikisaurus:impoverished
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations
lean
poor, deficient or inferior
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
[edit] Anagrams
[edit] West Frisian
[edit] Adjective
meager
