GAUNT
What does "GAUNT" mean?
Thin and bony, especially from hunger, illness, or hardship.
Meanings
- Lean and haggard, especially through suffering, hunger, or exhaustion. Months at sea had left the sailors gaunt and hollow-eyed.
- Of a place: bleak, bare, and desolate in appearance. The gaunt ruins stood black against the winter sky. literary
Did you know?
- Shakespeare built an entire deathbed wordplay on it: in 'Richard II', the dying John of Gaunt puns on his own name and his wasted body, declaring 'Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old.'
Word origin
Of uncertain origin, recorded in late Middle English; possibly from a Scandinavian source related to Old Norse 'gandr' (a thin stick or magic staff), suggesting something thin and wasted.
Remember it
GAUNT sounds like 'gone' with a 'T' - a gaunt face looks like the flesh has nearly gone.
A little poem
Cheekbones learn the light-
winter strips the face down to
the frame it always was.
haiku
What it teaches
Hardship doesn't add to us; it carves away until only the frame is left showing.
Quick facts
What does GAUNT mean?
Thin and bony, especially from hunger, illness, or hardship.
Is GAUNT a valid word?
Yes — GAUNT is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is GAUNT?
GAUNT has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does GAUNT come from?
Of uncertain origin, recorded in late Middle English; possibly from a Scandinavian source related to Old Norse 'gandr' (a thin stick or magic staff), suggesting something thin and wasted.
What can GAUNT teach us?
Hardship doesn't add to us; it carves away until only the frame is left showing.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.