Definition of "meagre" in English

noun

1. An edible fish, of species Argyrosomus regius, of the family Sciaenidae, found from the Black Sea to the eastern Atlantic.

   • 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) […] .

adjective

1. Having little flesh; lean; thin.

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.

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).

verb

1. (transitive) To make lean.