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Definition of "gaunt" []

  • Thin and bony; angular. See Synonyms at lean2. (adjective)
  • Emaciated and haggard; drawn. (adjective)
  • Bleak and desolate; barren. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "gaunt" in a sentence
  • "Our young-old faces, chiseled and gaunt from the fever and the heat and the sleepless nights, now stare back at us, lost and damned strangers, frozen in yellowing snapshots packed away in cardboard boxes with our medals and our ribbons."
  • "Balding, gray-haired, just five feet eight in his stocking feet, he had what one journalist called the gaunt demeanor of a church elder."
  • "Morgan recalled the gaunt anxiety of Mrs. Conboy's eyes, hollow of every emotion, as they seemed, but unrest and straining fear."