Meager means small in amount, poor in quality, or barely enough to get by. When something is meager, there's not much of it, and what's there feels insufficient or disappointing.

A meager lunch might be just a few crackers and an apple when you're really hungry. A worker earning meager wages struggles to pay for basic necessities. If you get a meager allowance, you can't afford much with it. Someone living on meager resources has to be very careful about every purchase.

The word carries a sense of scarcity or inadequacy. Something meager is uncomfortably small, barely adequate. A meager harvest means farmers grew far less food than they needed. Meager evidence in a mystery isn't quite enough to solve the case. When a joke gets a meager response, only one or two people chuckle instead of everyone laughing.

You can also use meager to describe thin or scrawny things. A meager tree might be spindly with few leaves. Someone with a meager frame looks very thin.

The word often appears when describing hardship or struggle: meager rations during wartime, meager savings after an emergency, or meager information when you need answers. When something is meager, you're left wishing there was more.