Origin
From Middle French maigre.
Adjective
(comparative meagrer, superlative meagrest)
- Having little flesh; lean; thin.
- Nothing will grow in this meagre soil.
- He was given meagre piece of cake that he swallowed in one bite.
- Deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent; paltry; scanty; inadequate; unsatisfying.
- (mineralogy) Dry and harsh to the touch (e.g., as chalk).
Verb
(third-person singular simple present meagres, present participle meagring, simple past and past participle meagred)
- To make lean.
Origin
From Middle English megre, from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱros. Cognate with Old English mæġer (“meagre, lean”), Dutch mager (“lean”), German mager (“lean”), Icelandic magur (“lean”)..
