Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Weak or insubstantial; flimsy.
  • adjective Precarious or insecure.
  • adjective Long and thin; slender.
  • adjective Having a thin consistency.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Thin; small; minute.
  • Rare; rarefied; fine; subtile.

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

  • adjective Thin; slender; small; minute.
  • adjective Rare; subtile; not dense; -- said of fluids.

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

  • adjective Thin in substance or consistency.
  • adjective insubstantial

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

  • adjective very thin in gauge or diameter
  • adjective having thin consistency
  • adjective lacking substance or significance

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin tenuis; see ten- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin tenuis ("thin, slight"), + Eng. suffix -ous

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Examples

Comments

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  • "In the complex relationship between vampire, Were, and human, there was a lot of leeway for something to go wrong somewhere. After all, my plan was thin, and the vampires' hold over Alcide was tenuous." -Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris

    February 5, 2011

  • asvab - ethereal- unusual lightness

    March 7, 2011

  • Flimsy or weak

    July 8, 2014