Adjective

(en-adj)

(uncomparable) Of, relating to, or located at or near a margin or edge; also figurative usages of location and margin (edge) .

The marginal area at the edge of the salt-marsh has its own plants.

In recent years there has been an increase in violence against marginal groups.

# Written in the margin of a book.

There were more marginal notes than text.

#* 1999 , R. I. Page, Introduction to English Runes , Boydell Press, page 198:

The early pages had marginal notes most of which were lost when rats nibbled away the manuscript edges.

# (geography) Sharing a border; geographically adjacent.

Monmouthshire is a Welsh county marginal to England.

(comparable) Determined by a small margin; having a salient characteristic determined by a small margin.

# Of a value, or having a characteristic that is of a value, that is close to being unacceptable or leading to exclusion from a group or category.

His writing ability was marginal at best.

''Having reviewed the test, there are two students below the required standard and three more who are marginal .

# (of land) Barely productive.

He farmed his marginal land with difficulty.

# (politics, chiefly, UK, Australia, NZ, of a constituency) Subject to a change in sitting member with only a small change in voting behaviour, this usually being inferred from the small winning margin of the previous election.

In Bristol West, Labour had a majority of only 1,000, so the seat is considered highly marginal this time around.

#* 2002 , Andrew Geddes, Jonathan Tonge, Labour?s Second Landslide: The British General Election 2001 , page 79,

In ‘battleground’ seats with the Conservatives, Liberal Democrat vote shares increased most in the most marginal seats.

#* 2007 , Robert Waller, Byron Criddle, The Almanac of British Politics , page 58,

In Outer London, Harrow East is now a more marginal Labour hold than Harrow West.

#* 2010 , Nick Economou, Zareh Ghazarian, Australian Politics For Dummies , unnumbered page,

The pendulum lists the seats from least marginal' to most '''marginal''' for the government on one side, and least '''marginal''' to most ' marginal for the opposition on the other side.

(economics, uncomparable) Pertaining to changes resulting from a unit increase in production or consumption of a good.

Adjective

(er)

With little or no possessions or money.

:

Of low quality.

:

*, chapter=10

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.}}

To be pitied.

:

*

*:Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=15 citation , passage=Mr. Campion sighed. ‘Poor man,’ he said. ‘He sees his great sacrifices rejected by the gods, and so, no doubt, all the Misses Eumenides let loose again to plague him.’}}

Deficient in a specified way.

:

Inadequate, insufficient.

:

*(w) (1600-1666)

*:That I have wronged no man will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.

Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.

*(Bible), (w) v.3

*:Blessed are the poor in spirit.