MEAGER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does meager mean? 

• MEAGER (adjective)
  The adjective MEAGER has 1 sense:

1. deficient in amount or quality or extent

  Familiarity information: MEAGER used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MEAGER (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deficient in amount or quality or extent

Synonyms:

meager; meagerly; meagre; scrimpy; stingy

Context example:

meager fare

Similar:

bare; scanty; spare (lacking in magnitude or quantity)

exiguous (extremely scanty)

hand-to-mouth (providing only bare essentials)

hardscrabble (barely satisfying a lower standard)

measly; miserable; paltry (contemptibly small in amount)

Also:

scarce (deficient in quantity or number compared with the demand)

minimal; minimum (the least possible)

deficient; insufficient (of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement)

Attribute:

adequacy; sufficiency (the quality of being sufficient for the end in view)

Antonym:

ample (more than enough in size or scope or capacity)

Derivation:

meagerness (the quality of being meager)

 Context examples 

The astronomers initially selected this galaxy to validate accepted models about lower-luminosity active galaxies—those with black holes that are on a meager diet of material.

(Hubble Uncovers Black Hole Disk that Shouldn't Exist, NASA)

The lobster was a scarlet mystery to her, but she hammered and poked till it was unshelled and its meager proportions concealed in a grove of lettuce leaves.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)