5 uses
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Definition
very thin and bony — often from hunger or as though having been worn to the bone
- On his long, gaunt body, he carried no spare flesh, no superfluous beard, his chin having a soft, economical nap to it, like the worn nap of his broad-brimmed hat.Chapters 16-18 -- The Ship; The Ramadan; His Mark (34% in)
- "Hallo, YOU sir," cried the Captain, a gaunt rib of the sea, stalking up to Queequeg, "what in thunder do you mean by that?Chapters 13-15 -- Wheelbarrow; Nantucket; Chowder (32% in)
- ...heard the fleet thunderings of naval victories; at intervals, they yield their beaches to wild barbarians, whose red painted faces flash from out their peltry wigwams; for leagues and leagues are flanked by ancient and unentered forests, where the gaunt pines stand like serried lines of kings in Gothic genealogies; those same woods harboring wild Afric beasts of prey, and silken creatures whose exported furs give robes to Tartar Emperors; they mirror the paved capitals of Buffalo and...Chapters 52-54 -- The Albatross; The Gam; The Town-Ho's Story (33% in)
- ...route to his vengeance, and beheld, how that through that same gate he was now both chasing and being chased to his deadly end; and not only that, but a herd of remorseless wild pirates and inhuman atheistical devils were infernally cheering him on with their curses;—when all these conceits had passed through his brain, Ahab's brow was left gaunt and ribbed, like the black sand beach after some stormy tide has been gnawing it, without being able to drag the firm thing from its place.Chapters 85-87 -- The Fountain; The Tail; The Grand Armada (64% in)
- You would almost have thought he was digging a cellar there in the sea; and when at length his spade struck against the gaunt ribs, it was like turning up old Roman tiles and pottery buried in fat English loam.Chapters 91-93 -- The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud; Ambergris; The Castaway (44% in)
There are no more uses of "gaunt" in Moby Dick.
Typical Usage
(best examples)