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...}}

Adjective

(en adjective)

Exhibiting parsimony; sparing in expenditure of money; frugal to excess; penurious; niggardly; stingy.

Using a minimal number of assumptions, steps, or conjectures.

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* Kiplinger's Personal Finance , January 2002

The first three college-savings plans stand out for their parsimonious expenses...

Statistical methods offer the ability to enforce parsimonious selection of the most influential potential predictors of each gene's state.