exiguous

Scanty; meager.

Adjective

  1. Scanty; meager.
    • The herdboy in the broom, already musical in the days of Father Chaucer, startles (and perhaps pains) the lark with this exiguous pipe. - 1889, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrong Box ch XIII:
    • The path on which I then planted my feet was quite unprecedentedly narrow. I had never had to walk along a thoroughfare so exiguous. - 1912, G. K. Chesterton, Manalive ch VII:
    • They are entering the market, setting up stalls on snowy streets, moonlighting to supplement exiguous incomes. - 1998 February 6, Michael Ignatieff, “Rebirth of a Nation: An Anatomy of Russia”, in New Statesman:

Origin

From Latin exiguus (“strict, exact”), from exigere (“to measure against a standard”).

Forms

more exiguous most exiguous

Related

exigency

Derived

exiguate exiguity exiguously exiguousness unexiguous