He supplements his meager income by working on Saturdays.meagremea‧gre British English, meager American English /ˈmiːɡə $ -ər/ adjective 
a meagre diet of bread and beansmeagre income/earnings/wages etc He supplements his meager income by working on Saturdays. a school with meagre resources—meagrely adverb—meagreness noun [uncountable]
WORD ORIGINmeager
Origin:
1300-1400 French maigre, from Latin macer ‘thin’EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
- Even this meagre effort is a struggle.
- Government regulation offers a meagre defence against Hollywood.
- Local authorities across the country have therefore been unable, and unwilling, to part with their own meagre resources.
- One can only wonder what kept Alpine dwellers pinned to their meagre existence beyond habit, tradition and nowhere else to go.
- The meagre little peelings falling from her knife into water eased her, their ordinariness was a link with real life.
- The fee basis for unsuccessful claims can often be extremely meagre as can profitability in general for a significant proportion of the work.
- The recompense is meagre, but when combined with ideological enthusiasm it helps sustain a new type of local politician.
- This has ranged from a weekly average of just 3.7 complaints in Crook to an even more meagre 2.3 in Chester-le-Street.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY He supplements his meager income by working on Saturdays. a school with meagre resourcesCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES Companies are put off investing in poor areas because of the meagre pickings to be had. The prisoners were queuing for their meagre rations (=small rations).COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN
a meagre amount of food, money etc is too small and is much less than you need: He supplements his meager income by working on Saturdays. a school with meagre resources British English, a meager living American English (=not much money)· She earned a meagre living as a shop assistant.
Companies are put off investing in poor areas because of the meagre pickings to be had. The prisoners were queuing for their meagre rations (=small rations).· The Association was extremely successful in improving the lot of Bank Officials who previously had meagre earnings and poor conditions of employment.· What did they do for their meagre earnings?
· Most of its meagre income comes from donors.· They had nothing but the meagre income provided by supplementary benefit.
· When one looks back, it is with amazement that survival on the meagre rations was possible.
a meagre diet of bread and beansmeagre income/earnings/wages etc He supplements his meager income by working on Saturdays. a school with meagre resources—meagrely adverb—meagreness noun [uncountable]