meagre

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiːɡɚ/

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From Middle French maigre.

meagre (plural meagres)

1. Argyrosomus regius, an edible fish of the family Sciaenidae.
   • 1986, A. Wysokiński, The Living Marine Resources of the Southeast Atlantic, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 178, page 48,

     Among more valuable species some of them are worth mentioning, especially littoral forms as: meagres and other croakers (Sciaenidae), grunters (Pomadasyidae), threadfins (Polynemidae), groupers (Serranidae), snappers (Lutjanidae) […] .

   • 2008, Arturo Morales-Muñes, Eufrasia Roselló-Izquierdo, 11: Twenty Thousand Years of Fishing in the Strait, Torben C. Rick, Jon M. Erlandson (editors), Human Impacts on Ancient Marine Ecosystems: A Global Perspective, page 261,

     It is striking that these represent meagres (Argyrosomus regius), a species never mentioned in classical texts.

   • 2011, John S. Lucas, Paul C. Southgate, Aquaculture: Farming Aquatic Animals and Plants, unnumbered page,

     Meagres (Argyrosomus regius, 230 cm, 103 kg) have been raised mainly in Spain, France and Italy.

• (Argyrosomus regius): salmon-basse, shade-fish, stone basse

• (fish of family Sciaenidae): croaker, drum, drumfish, hardhead, sciaenid

• brown meagre (Sciaena umbra)

• Argyrosomus regius on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Argyrosomus regius on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Argyrosomus regius on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

From Middle English megre, borrowed from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, macrum, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱros. Cognate with Old English mæġer (“meagre, lean”), Dutch mager (“lean”), German mager (“lean”), Icelandic magur (“lean”)..

• meager (US)

meagre (comparative meagrer, superlative meagrest)

1. Having little flesh; lean; thin.
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 1, 1843, William Shakespeare, Samuel Weller Singer (notes), Charles Symmons (life), The Dramatic Works and Poems, Volume 2, page 462,

     […] meagre were his looks; / Sharp misery had worn him to the bones:

2. Deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent

   Nothing will grow in this meagre soil.

   He was given a meagre piece of cake that he swallowed in one bite.

   Synonyms: paltry, scanty, inadequate

   • 1871, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic: A History, Volume 1, page 144,

     His education had been but meagre.

3. (set theory) Of a set: such that, considered as a subset of a (usually larger) topological space, it is in a precise sense small or negligible.
4. (mineralogy) Dry and harsh to the touch (e.g., as chalk).

• meagrely
• meagreness

meagre (third-person singular simple present meagres, present participle meagring, simple past and past participle meagred)

1. (transitive) To make lean.
   • 1862, Robert Thomas Wilson, Herbert Randolph (editor), Life of General Sir Robert Wilson, page 275,

     I am meagred to a skeleton; my nose is broiled to flaming heat, and I am suffering the greatest inconvenience from the loss of my baggage which I fear the enemy have taken with my servant at Konigsberg.

• Graeme, meager