meager

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   deficient in amount or quality or extent

   meager resources

2. 2
   adj

   Poor, deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent

   A meager piece of cake in one bite.

3. 3
   adj

   Having little flesh; lean; thin.

4. 4
   adj

   Of a set: such that, considered as a subset of a (usually larger) topological space, it is in a precise sense small or negligible.

5. 5
   adj

   Dry and harsh to the touch (e.g., as chalk).

6. 6
   verb

   To make lean.

Etymology

From Middle English megre, from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós. Akin, through the Indo-European root, to Old English mæġer (“meager, lean”), West Frisian meager (“meager”), Dutch mager (“meager”), German mager, Icelandic magr whence the Icelandic magur, Norwegian Bokmål mager and Danish mager. Doublet of maigre.