meager

or meagre adjective Etymology: Middle English megre, from Anglo-French megre, meigre, from Latin macr-, macer lean; akin to Old English mæger lean, Greek makros long Date: 14th century 1. having little flesh ; thin 2. a. lacking desirable qualities (as richness or strength) <

leading a meager life

> b. deficient in quality or quantity <

a meager diet

> • meagerly adverb • meagerness noun Synonyms: 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

>.