From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmeagremea‧gre British English, meager American English /ˈmiːɡə $ -ər/ adjective LITTLE/NOT MUCHa meagre amount of food, money etc is too small and is much less than you need → substantial a meagre diet of bread and beansmeagre income/earnings/wages etc He supplements his meager income by working on Saturdays. a school with meagre resources —meagrely adverb —meagreness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
meagre• This has ranged from a weekly average of just 3.7 complaints in Crook to an even more meagre 2.3 in Chester-le-Street.• The fee basis for unsuccessful claims can often be extremely meagre as can profitability in general for a significant proportion of the work.• The recompense is meagre, but when combined with ideological enthusiasm it helps sustain a new type of local politician.• Government regulation offers a meagre defence against Hollywood.• Even this meagre effort is a struggle.• One can only wonder what kept Alpine dwellers pinned to their meagre existence beyond habit, tradition and nowhere else to go.• The meagre little peelings falling from her knife into water eased her, their ordinariness was a link with real life.• Local authorities across the country have therefore been unable, and unwilling, to part with their own meagre resources.meagre resources• Local authorities across the country have therefore been unable, and unwilling, to part with their own meagre resources.• There was no prospect that the tradition-bound villagers would pool their meagre resources to experiment in collective farming.• But if you have to manage on meagre resources, you will cope well.From Longman Business Dictionarymeagremea‧gre /ˈmiːgə-ər/ British English, meager American English adjective very small in amountSales rose a meager 2.5% in January.The chairman predicts very meagre growth this year. 