rhizoverbBeta
DictionarymeagerScant or inadequate
adjective

meager

MEE-ger/ˈmiɡər/

Lacking in amount, quality, or substance.

The meager meal contains only a little rice and three peas.

A woman looks dismayed at a meager meal: just a tiny spoonful of rice and three peas on a full-sized dinner plate, with an empty serving saucepan beside it.
Etymology
meagerLatinlean, thin

Latin macer meant physically lean or thin. Applied first to people and animals, this thinness extended to food and other resources, suggesting too little substance to be adequate.

In context

The Fallen Age7:59
a stain left on linen, a fire allowed to go out in the drawing room before guests arrived, these were not abstract inconveniences. They were often deducted from wages already meager, or they were the deciding factor in a dismissal.
Why You Wouldn’t Survive a Day as a Victorian Servant in 1888

More examples

  • She supports her family on a meager income.
  • The report offers meager evidence to support its claims.
  • A meager breakfast leaves us hungry before noon.

Forms

meager · meagerer · meagerest

meagerness noun — The condition of lacking enough substance or quantity.

Similar words

scant
Emphasizes an amount barely sufficient or less than needed.
sparse
Describes things thinly scattered rather than necessarily inadequate.
paltry
Adds stronger contempt for something disappointingly small or worthless.