Both Uses of
gaunt
in
Oliver Twist
- Mr. Sowerberry was a tall gaunt, large-jointed man, attired in a suit of threadbare black, with darned cotton stockings of the same colour, and shoes to answer.†
Chpt 4 *
- Oliver sat huddled together, in a corner of the cart; bewildered with alarm and apprehension; and figuring strange objects in the gaunt trees, whose branches waved grimly to and fro, as if in some fantastic joy at the desolation of the scene.†
Chpt 21
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.