meager
AmericanRelated Words
See scanty.
Other Word Forms
- meagerly adverb
- meagerness noun
Etymology
Origin of meager
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English megre, from Old French maigre, from Latin macer “lean”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Yet after this meager performance, and weakened in the war, the regime spent the past few months repeating the same threats from before June.
The next woman took her meager rations without a word, and the rest of the villagers did too.
From Literature
The nation’s trade deficit fell in 2025 by a meager 0.2% to $901.5 billion, but only due to a large and quirky increase in gold exports tied to U.S. tariff policy.
From MarketWatch
Some people wanted to see Simpson punished, while others viewed his acquittal as vindication, however meager, for decades’ worth of societal abuse.
From Salon
When he’s not strong-arming unsuspecting customers into hidden upcharges for their cars, he’s trying to gain some control in his meager, unsatisfied life.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
