meager

adjective mea·ger \ ˈmē-gər \

variants: or meagre

|Updated on: 12 Jun 2018

Tip: Synonym Guide

Examples: meager in a Sentence

Definition of meager

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

See meager defined for English-language learners

See meager defined for kids

Examples of meager in a Sentence

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 of meager from the Web

The bank’s balance sheet is still shrinking and its profits are meager.

— max colchester, WSJ, "How to Fix a Holy Banking Mess in Spain? Boot the Priests, Bring in the Bankers," 3 June 2018
The amounts to candidates have been relatively meager — the most that anyone has received was $15,250.

— lawrence mower, miamiherald, "Opioid makers gave $1 million to Florida politicians over last 20 years | Miami Herald," 19 May 2018
Wage and income growth are better indicators of robustness, and that on average has been meager.

— phillip molnar, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Is the economy in danger of overheating?," 11 May 2018
Bryce is sentenced to a meager three months probation; Justin must serve six months in custody.

— chelsea greenwood lassman, Teen Vogue, ""13 Reasons Why" Season 2 Recap: Here's Where All the Characters Stand at the End of the Finale," 25 May 2018
Playing as Kara early on means doing lots of tedious household chores; bringing in the laundry, washing the dishes, making dinner from whatever meager scraps are in the kitchen.

— andrew webster, The Verge, "Detroit: Become Human review: a beautiful vision of the future gets stuck in the past," 24 May 2018
As social media was flooded with pictures of desolate polling stations, state-run television used tight shots to hide meager lines.

— jim wyss and gustavo ocando alex, miamiherald, "Anemic voting in Venezuela paves way for Maduro reelection | Miami Herald," 20 May 2018
But does someone who wants to save desperate migrants urinate on their meager belongings?

— marie myung-ok lee, Longreads, "Politics and Prose," 18 May 2018
Hundreds if not thousands of members of the armed forces are deserting, in part because of meager rations, according to military analysts.

— anthony faiola and rachelle krygier, Washington Post, "Blackouts, hyperinflation, hunger: Maduro faces reelection as Venezuela deteriorates," 16 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'meager.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of meager

Middle English megre, from Anglo-French megre, meigre, from Latin macr-, macer lean; akin to Old English mæger lean, Greek makros long

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

meager Synonyms

Phrases

thin on the ground;

Synonym Discussion of 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.