meager は【貧弱な，やせた】という意味の形容詞です．
macer（Latin: やせた）
同系語
| maigre | 肉汁の少ない，精進料理の |
| emaciate | やつれさせる，やつれる |
Newsweek.com における出現頻度：重要単語（記事中２年間で数十回程度以上）
足りないを意味する単語のニュアンスの違いについて
| scarce | 不十分だが，必ずしも追加が必要ではないし，十分な時間がたてば解決されるかもしれない |
| scanty | 十分な量に足りない |
| meager | 最低の必要量にも足りない |
A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a symptom of meagerness.
-- Eric Hoffer
If most men and women were forced to rely upon physical charm to attract lovers, their sexual lives would be not only meager but in a youth-worshiping country like America painfully brief.
-- Gore Vidal
Left homeless by a flood, he surrounded himself with his meager remaining possessions.
洪水によって家を失い，彼は残ったわずかな所持品を周りに置いて（座り込んで）いる．