What does gaunt mean?
Gaunt describes someone who is extremely thin, lean, or bony, usually as a visible sign of illness, hunger, hardship, or age. In its physical sense, the word is more emphatic than simply thin: a gaunt face looks hollow and wasted, while a gaunt frame appears stripped of flesh. Gaunt can also describe a bleak, barren, or desolate place, especially in formal or literary writing. The adjective is standard in both British and American English, though the figurative landscape sense has a deliberately literary tone. Gaunt can additionally be used as a rare verb meaning to make or become gaunt, while the older noun meaning glove is now archaic. Because gaunt intensifies the idea of thinness and associates it with deprivation, it often carries a somber, emotionally charged implication.
Extremely thin, lean, or bony, especially because of illness, hunger, or hardship; also bleak, barren, or desolate.
"His gaunt frame and hollowed cheeks showed how little food he had received."
The landscape sense is chiefly formal or literary and suggests extreme bleakness or desolation.
To make or become extremely thin or bony.
"The long campaign gaunted the soldiers."
This verb is rare and has a literary or archaic tone.
Archaic: a glove.
"The armoury preserved a worn leather gaunt."
The plural gaunts belongs to the archaic noun meaning glove and is rarely encountered.
"The scribe listed several pairs of leather gaunts."
The word that can make a face look worn to the bone began as a word for a glove.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does gaunt come from?
The modern English adjective meaning “very thin” is commonly traced to Middle English gaunt, originally “glove,” borrowed from Old French gant. That French word came from a Germanic root associated with the hand or glove and is also ancestral to English glove; Old French gantelet supplies the cognate gauntlet. The narrower adjective meaning of extreme thinness is recorded in the early modern period and developed through the older word's glove-related associations.
Related word forms
How gaunt is actually used
Gaunt is standard in both British and American English. Its bodily sense often implies illness, deprivation, or extreme leanness rather than ordinary slimness; the landscape sense is literary and connotes bleakness. The verb is rare, and the noun meaning glove is archaic.
Easily confused with gaunt
Grant is pronounced with a vowel like the a in cat and means to give or award, whereas gaunt is pronounced like haunt and means extremely thin.