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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Meager \Mea"ger\, Meagre \Mea"gre\, verb (used with an object) To make lean. [Obs.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Meager \Mea"ger\, Meagre \Mea"gre\, adjective [OE. merge, F. maigre, L. macer; akin to D. & G. mager, Icel. magr, and prob. to Gr. makro's long. Cf. {Emaciate}, {Maigre}.]
1. Destitue of, or having little, flesh; lean.
Meager were his looks; Sharp misery had worn him to the bones. --Shak.
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.
Of secular habits and meager religious belief. --I. Taylor.
His education had been but meager. --Motley.
3. (Min.) Dry and harsh to the touch, as chalk.
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.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
meager
adjective
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}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
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
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