meager
Very small in amount and not enough or satisfying.
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.