Adjective

(er)

lean, angular and bony

* {{quote-book

, year=1894 , author=Joseph Jacobs , title=The Fables of Aesop , chapter=1 citation , passage=A gaunt Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by.}}

haggard, drawn and emaciated

* {{quote-book

, year=1917 , author=Arthur Conan Doyle , title=His Last Bow , chapter=5 citation , passage=In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt , wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart.}}

bleak, barren and desolate

* {{quote-book

, year=1908 , author=William Hope Hodgson , title=The House on the Borderland , chapter=14 citation , passage=Behind me, rose up, to an extraordinary height, gaunt , black cliffs. }}

Adjective

(er)

Having little flesh; lean; thin.

Poor, deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent; paltry; scanty; inadequate; unsatisfying.

A meager piece of cake in one bite.

* {{quote-book

, year=1607 , author=Thomas Walkington , title=The Optick Glasse of Humors, or, The touchstone of a golden temperature, or ... , page=54 citation , passage=...that begets many ugly and deformed phantasies in the braine, which being also hot and drie in the second extenuates and makes meager the body extraordinarily, ...}}

* {{quote-book

, year=1637 , author=William Shakespeare , title=The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice: With the extreame crueltie of Shylocke ... , page=E5 citation , passage=Nor none of thee thou pale and common drudge tween man and man: but thou, thou meager lead which rather threatnest then dost promise ought...}}