meager

Meaning

Adj

1. (Canada, US, common) Having little flesh; lean; thin.
2. (Canada, US, common) Poor, deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent
3. (Canada, US, common) Of a set: such that, considered as a subset of a (usually larger) topological space, it is in a precise sense small or negligible.
4. (Canada, US, common) Dry and harsh to the touch (e.g., as chalk).

Verb

To make lean.

Opposite of

dense

Synonyms

meagre

lean

thin

poor

skinny

scanty

meagre

gaunt

wretched

skimpy

dismal

miserable

abject

scarce

scant

limited

exiguous

insufficient

sparse

stingy

few

🤏

pitiful

spare

scrawny

unenviable

forlorn

measly

little

mean

lacking

meagerly

half-empty

lank

squalid

scrimpy

incomplete

slender

slab sided

coarse food

lean diet

austere fare

avaricious

bare

bony

deficient

destitute

greedy

impoverished

in short supply

insubstantial

Translations

maigre

mager

pauvre

schraal

mager

magro

schamel

yetersiz

sprietig

magro

misero

escasso

miserabel

dürftig

belabberd

🤢

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈmiɡɚ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: megre

Cognate with Old English: mæġer

Cognate with Western Frisian: meager

Cognate with Dutch: mager

Cognate with German: mager

Cognate with Icelandic: magr

Cognate with Icelandic: magur

Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål: mager

Cognate with Danish: mager

In summary

From Middle English megre, from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós. Akin, through the Indo-European root, to Old English mæġer (“meager, lean”), West Frisian meager (“meager”), Dutch mager (“meager”), German mager, Icelandic magr whence the Icelandic magur,
Norwegian Bokmål mager and Danish mager. Doublet of maigre.