meager

1 of 3

adjective (1)

mea·​ger ˈmē-gər 

variants or meagre

1

: having little flesh : thin

… meager were his looks, sharp misery had worn him to the bones …

—William Shakespeare

2

a

: lacking desirable qualities (such as richness or strength)

leading a meager life

b

: deficient in quality or quantity

a meager diet

meagerly adverb

meagerness noun

maigre

2 of 3

adjective (2)

mai·​gre

ˈmāgrə, 

F māgr(ᵊ) or meeg- or -g(rə)

1

: being a day on which the eating of flesh is forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church

2

: constituting a food that contains no flesh nor juices of flesh and so may be eaten on maigre days

maigre

3 of 3

noun

mai·​gre

"

variants or maiger

-gə(r)

or less commonly meagre

ˈmēgə(r)

plural maigres

-grəz, 

F -gr(ᵊ) or -g(rə)

or maigers

-gə(r)z

1

: a large European marine food fish (Sciaena aquila)

2

: a member of the percoid family Sciaenidae : croaker sense 2, drum sense 5

called also bar

Synonyms of meager

Adjective (1)

• sparse
• scarce
• poor

Choose the Right Synonym for meager

meager, scanty, scant, skimpy, spare, sparse mean falling short of what is normal, necessary, or desirable.

meager implies the absence of elements, qualities, or numbers necessary to a thing's richness, substance, or potency.

a meager portion of meat

scanty stresses insufficiency in amount, quantity, or extent.

supplies too scanty to last the winter

scant suggests a falling short of what is desired or desirable rather than of what is essential.

in January the daylight hours are scant

skimpy usually suggests niggardliness or penury as the cause of the deficiency.

tacky housing developments on skimpy lots

spare may suggest a slight falling short of adequacy or merely an absence of superfluity.

a spare, concise style of writing

sparse implies a thin scattering of units.

a sparse population

Examples of meager in a Sentence

Adjective (1)

Every morning he eats a meager breakfast of toast and coffee.

We'll have to do the best we can with this year's meager harvest.

She came to this country with a fairly meager English vocabulary, but she is learning more words every day.

They suffered through several meager years at the beginning of their marriage.

Although she's now rich and famous, she remembers her meager beginnings as a child from a poor family.

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

The dynamic is likely due to meager consumer demand amid affordability issues, Zandi said. —Greg Iacurci, CNBC, 10 June 2026

Stalls four through six have delivered thirteen winners in those races, and the outside three stalls have delivered a meager six wins. —Guy Martin, Forbes.com, 6 June 2026

That even applies to Sgr A*, which exists on a diet of gas and dust so meager For a human, the equivalent would be consuming one grain of rice every million years. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 5 June 2026

Once inside the country, workers are often paid meager wages on uncontracted and inconsistent work with everything from their food, shelter and their transportation to and from the farms managed by their gangmasters. —Matteo Moschella, NBC news, 4 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

Adjective (1)

Middle English megre "thin, having little flesh from lack of food," borrowed from Anglo-French megre, maigre, going back to Latin macr-, macer "thin, lean, of little substance," going back to Indo-European *mh₂ḱ-ro- "long, thin," whence also Germanic *magra- "lean" (whence Old English mæger "lean," Old High German magar, Old Norse magr), Greek makrós "long, tall, high, large"; derivative in *-ro-, adjective suffix, of a base *meh₂ḱ-, *mh₂ḱ- seen also in Latin maciēs "bodily thinness, wasting," Greek mêkos "length," mḗkistos "longest, highest," Avestan masah- "length, greatness," masišta- "highest," Hittite maklant- "thin, slim (of animals)"

Note: Alternatively from Indo-European *maḱ- if a is accepted as a vowel, as the laryngeal h₂ is invoked solely to produce the right vocalism.

Adjective (2)

French, maigre, meager, from Middle French

Noun

French maigre, from Middle French, perhaps from maigre, adjective

First Known Use

Adjective (1)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for meager

• eager
• leaguer
• meagre
• segar

Kids Definition

meager

adjective

mea·​ger

variants or meagre

ˈmē-gər 

1

: having little flesh : thin

2

a

: lacking desirable qualities (as richness or strength)

led a meager life

b

: deficient in quality or quantity

a meager serving of meat

meagerly adverb

meagerness noun