meagre
Having little flesh; lean; thinHaving little flesh; lean; thin.
Recorded US: Neskaya, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
» The pay was meager.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
4 senses(Canada, UK, common)Having little flesh; lean; thin.
худо́йxudój, то́щийtóščij
(Canada, UK, common)Deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent
Nothing will grow in this meagre soil.
He was given a meagre piece of cake that he swallowed in one bite.
скудныйskudnyj, бе́дныйbédnyj, недоста́точныйnedostátočnyj
мізе́рнийmizérnyj, убо́гийubóhyj
deficient in amount or quality or extent
(Canada, UK, common)Of a set: such that, considered as a subset of a (usually larger) topological space, it is in a precise sense small or negligible.
(Canada, UK, common)Dry and harsh to the touch (e.g., as chalk).
Examples
17 sentencesThe pay was meager.
Fadil wasn't satisfied with meager wages.
He lived in a rather meagre house.
Despite her meagre salary, she works very hard.
deTrotz ihres kargen Lohns arbeitet sie sehr fleißig. — Yorwba
It was difficult to live on his meager earnings.
ruБыло трудно жить на его мизерное жалование. — Hellerick
Translations
5 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 2
Origin
From Middle English megre, borrowed from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from LatinFrom Middle English megre, borrowed from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, macrum, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós. Cognate with Old English mæġer (“meagre, lean”), Dutch mager (“lean”), German mager (“lean”), Icelandic magur (“lean”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
meagrer, meagrestSynonyms
7 synonymsWord family
3 related wordsLessons for this word
2 lessons- A2Comparatives — Because it has a comparative form
- A2Superlatives — Because it has a superlative form
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.