From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgauntgaunt /ɡɔːnt $ ɡɒːnt/ adjective 1 THIN PERSONvery thin and pale, especially because of illness or continued worry SYN drawn the old man’s gaunt face► see thesaurus at thin2 C literary a building, mountain etc that is gaunt looks very plain and unpleasant a gaunt cathedral —gauntness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
gaunt• He has lost his hair and some teeth and appeared quite gaunt.• He could see his reflection, turned gaunt and ashen, in the fragment of mirror propped against the lavatory window.• When I visited him in hospital Albert looked terrible -- his face was gaunt and his hair had turned grey.• It looked gaunt and inhospitable, he realised.• It was a youthful but gaunt face from which a yes meant no.• The gaunt faces beneath closely cropped heads and the young faces on emaciated bodies had began to assume form and substance.• The grittiness of the coal smoke coming down on those gaunt January afternoons was still in her nostrils.• The District Attorney at forty-four had the gaunt look of a man twenty years older.• Ruth looked away in panic then braved herself to look back but the gaunt, pinched face had gone.• It was hard to say which were skinnier and more gaunt, the men or the animals.Origin gaunt (1400-1500) Perhaps from a Scandinavian language 