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Webster 1913 Edition

Gaunt

Gaunt

,
Adj.
[Cf. Norw.
gand
a thin pointed stick, a tall and thin man, and W.
gwan
weak.]
Attenuated, as with fasting or suffering; lean; meager; pinched and grim.
“The gaunt mastiff.”
Pope.
A mysterious but visible pestilence, striding
gaunt
and fleshless across our land.
Nichols.

Webster 1828 Edition

Gaunt

GAUNT

Definition 2024

gaunt

gaunt

English

Alternative forms

  • gant (dialectal, Scotland)
  • gent (Scotland)

Adjective

gaunt ‎(comparative gaunter, superlative gauntest)

  1. lean, angular, and bony
    • 1894, Joseph Jacobs, chapter 1, in The Fables of Aesop:
      A gaunt Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by.
  2. haggard, drawn, and emaciated
    • 1917, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 5, in His Last Bow:
      In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt, wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart.
  3. bleak, barren, and desolate
    • 1908, William Hope Hodgson, chapter 14, in The House on the Borderland:
      Behind me, rose up, to an extraordinary height, gaunt, black cliffs.

Synonyms

Translations

Etymology

From Middle English gawnt, gawnte ‎(“lean, slender”), from Old French, probably from a Scandinavian source, related to Old Norse gandr ‎(“magic staff, stick”), from Proto-Germanic *gandaz ‎(“stick, staff”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen- ‎(“to beat, hit, drive”). Cognate with Icelandic gandur ‎(“magic staff”), Norwegian gand ‎(“tall pointed stick; tall, thin man”), Danish gand, gan, Norwegian gana ‎(“cut-off tree limbs”), Bavarian Gunten ‎(“a kind of wedge or peg”). Related also to Old English gūþ ‎(“battle”), Latin dēfendō ‎(“ward off, defend”). Compare also Swedish dialectal gank ‎(“a lean, emaciated horse”).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: gônt, IPA(key): /ɡɔːnt/
  • (some accents) enPR: gänt, IPA(key): /ɡɑːnt/
  • Rhymes: -ɔːnt, -ɑːnt

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