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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Marginal \Mar"gin*al\, adjective [Cf. F. marginal.]
1. Of or pertaining to a margin.
2. Written or printed in the margin; as, a marginal note or gloss.
3. At the lower limit; barely sufficient; as, of marginal utility. [PJC]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
marginal
adjective
1: at or constituting a border or edge; "the marginal strip of beach" [syn: {fringy}]
2: of questionable or minimal quality; "borderline grades"; "marginal writing ability" [syn: {borderline}]
3: of a bare living gained by great labor; "the sharecropper's hardscrabble life"; "a marginal existence" [syn: {hardscrabble}]
4: just barely adequate or within a lower limit; "a bare majority"; "a marginal victory" [syn: {bare(a)}]
5: producing at a rate that barely covers production costs; "marginal industries"; "marginal land"
6: of something or someone close to a lower limit or lower class; "marginal abilities"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
41 Moby Thesaurus words for "marginal": bordering, borderline, boundary, bounding, coastal, determinant, determinative, determining, disputable, doubtful, dubious, extreme, fringing, frontier, inferior, infinitesimal, insignificant, limbic, liminal, limit, limiting, littoral, low-priority, minimal, negligible, no great shakes, of no account, of no consequence, of no matter, of no significance, on the edge, questionable, rimming, secondary, skirting, slight, small, terminal, threshold, tiny, unimportant
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:
marginal adjective [common]
1. [techspeak] An extremely small change. "A marginal increase in {core} can decrease {GC} time drastically." In everyday terms, this means that it is a lot easier to clean off your desk if you have a spare place to put some of the junk while you sort through it. 2. Of little merit. "This proposed new feature seems rather marginal to me." 3. Of extremely small probability of {win}ning. "The power supply was rather marginal anyway; no wonder it fried."
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
marginal
1. Extremely small. "A marginal increase in {core} can decrease {GC} time drastically." In everyday terms, this means that it is a lot easier to clean off your desk if you have a spare place to put some of the junk while you sort through it. 2. Of extremely small merit. "This proposed new feature seems rather marginal to me." 3. Of extremely small probability of {win}ning. "The power supply was rather marginal anyway; no wonder it fried." [{Jargon File}] (1994-10-21)
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |