Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The condition or quality of being meager; leanness; poorness; scantiness; barrenness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state or quality of being meager; leanness; scantiness; barrenness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun US The state of being meager.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the quality of being meager

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

meager +‎ -ness

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word meagerness.

Examples

  • The next rains are not expected until April, by which time the meagerness of the harvest will be felt intensely by the people living in this region -- there will, once again, be hunger and starvation.

    David Weiss: Gold -- the Color of Impending Starvation David Weiss 2012

  • The Libya campaign also exposed the meagerness of European weapon stockpiles.

    The Lesson of Libya 2011

  • We are unjust people (having imaginary arguments strikes me as a bit lacking in proportion, not so mention meagerness of world), and so we are continually confused into failing to give unto each thing its due.

    Fairness and Justice « Unknowing 2010

  • And another thing they learned was that it was easier for one who has gorged at the flesh-pots to content himself with the meagerness of a crust, than for one who has known only the crust.

    Chapter XXV 2010

  • Although Johanna is aware of the meagerness of Georgia's allowance, she feels that the recent precipitous expansion of the neighborhood doll-housing market, coupled with the effects of informational asymmetries—namely, that Georgia can't really add yet—are enough to justify the risk.

    Report on the Recent Piggybanking Crisis Eric Hague 2011

  • The next rains are not expected until April, by which time the meagerness of the harvest will be felt intensely by the people living in this region -- there will, once again, be hunger and starvation.

    David Weiss: Gold -- the Color of Impending Starvation David Weiss 2012

  • And it appalls me that people who claim for their views the authority of science routinely and arbitrarily insist on a brutally reductionist notion of what a human being is, what the human mind is, that justifies as inevitable every sort of meagerness and rapacity.

    Marilynne Robinson: Religion, Science and the Ultimate Nature of Reality Marilynne Robinson 2010

  • They are free of the meagerness and nasty tannins that can beset lackluster Bordeaux years.

    A Refreshing Bordeaux Peter Hellman 2010

  • They are free of the meagerness and nasty tannins that can beset lackluster Bordeaux years.

    A Refreshing Bordeaux Peter Hellman 2010

  • These situations reveal the meagerness of my character.

    VII Kyle Muntz 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.