All 5 Uses of

gaunt
in
Moby Dick

"Hallo, YOU sir," cried the Captain, a gaunt rib of the sea, stalking up to Queequeg, "what in thunder do you mean by that?†
Chpt 13-15

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.†
Chpt 16-18 *

for leagues and leagues are flanked by ancient and unentered forests, where the gaunt pines stand like serried lines of kings in Gothic genealogies;†
Chpt 52-54

And when he glanced upon the green walls of the watery defile in which the ship was then sailing, and bethought him that through that gate lay the 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.†
Chpt 85-87

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.†
Chpt 91-93

Definitions:

(1) (gaunt)
very thin and bony -- often from hunger or as though having been worn to the bone
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
meaning too rare to warrant focus:

More rarely, gaunt can reference a place such as a landscape or a home, in which case it indicates that the place is bleak or barren.