How to use gaunt in a sentence

28 example sentences · adjective

Gaunt means angular, bony, and lean. Example: “In winter, the bloomless trees looked gaunt and miserable.”

Examples of gaunt by meaning

adjectiveAngular, bony, and lean.

It will be the rawest, gauntest, ungainliest brute that ever scared the motor-bicycles on the Northampton Road.1915 September, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Boy Grows Up”, in The Research Magnificent, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The...
Freuding is gaunt and soft-spoken, with something of an aristocratic bearing.2025 December 1, Isaac Stanley-Becker, “The New German War Machine”, in The Atlantic

adjectiveUnhealthily thin, as from hunger or illness: drawn, emaciated, haggard.

In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick-room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt, wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart.1913 November 22, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Dying Detective”, in His Last Bow: A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes, 1st...

adjectiveOf a place or thing: bleak, desolate.

Behind me, rose up, to an extraordinary height, gaunt, black cliffs.1908, William Hope Hodgson, “The Sea of Sleep”, in The House on the Borderland […], London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC; republished Adelaide...
These lines survive, but who now recalls a journey to Macmerry, or to Carmyllie, or spares a thought for the Solway Junction Railway with its gaunt and lonely viaduct?1958 July, J. P. Wilson, “Scottish Soliloquy”, in Railway Magazine, page 495

More sentences with gaunt

In winter, the bloomless trees looked gaunt and miserable.From the entry bloomless
His whole constitution was that of an emaciated, suffering man, malarial and gaunt.2019, Chigozie Obioma, An Orchestra of Minorities, Abacus (2019), page 409. From the entry malarial
His skin tone was darker, he appeared gaunt, and his lips were cracked, Jiang’s sister told Jin.2019 February 28, Yanan Wang, “Chinese rights lawyer disappears on prison release date”, in AP News, archived from the original on 16 Sep…. From the entry Luoshan
The door opened and a woman stood there, her face gaunt and filled with sadness.2015, Constance C. Greene, Dotty's Suitcase, Open Road Media, →ISBN. From the entry dotty
Gaunt was urbane and smiling again, not a hair out of place.1991, Stephen King, Needful Things. From the entry toilet
When Olly snakes out from under the bed, his tartan bathrobe rootches up over his gaunt ribs, revealing ghastly scars.2012, Honor Molloy, Smarty Girl: Dublin Savage, page 95. From the entry rootch
His eyes a prosecutor's shone through slits, devility stood to twist the rope to my neck, gaunt limb burdened to crink.2010, Charles E. Miller, The Sentence, →ISBN, page 77. From the entry devility
The gaunt men carried swords and daggers with a new familiarity, and even the women had poniards belted at their waists.2003, Christopher Paolini, “Dragon Tales”, in Eragon, pages 22-23. From the entry poniard
As World War II came to a close, the gaunt and dolorous child was liberated at yet another death camp, Buchenwald.2001 June 24, Stefan Kanfer, “Author, Teacher, Witness”, in Time. From the entry dolorous
In a matter of hours she was looking gaunt, and sallow: her face had a kind of negative color.1982, Saul Bellow, chapter 2, in The Dean’s December, New York: Pocket Books, published 1983, page 20. From the entry sallow
It is a man with a lantern, windburnt, gaunt, out of breath, in a solder’s greatcoat too large for him.1980, J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians, Penguin, published 1982, Chapter , p. 193. From the entry windburned
It's an oasis in the midst of a concrete jungle,' said Dowd, a gaunt, ruddy-faced Norman Rockwellesque figure.1980. Washington Post, 6 Apr 1980, G1. From the entry Rockwellesque
He stood there beside the gaunt rabbit of a mule, the two of them shabby and motionless and unimpatient.1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury. From the entry unimpatient
Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded.1906, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 1, in The Malefactor. From the entry attenuate
Appearing pale and gaunt as he stood before Judge Ellen Burns, the reedy man in glasses admitted to 24 charges of fraud, conspiracy, and racketeering.2002 May 16, Michael D. Sallah, “Ex-financier Frankel pleads guilty to insurance-fraud scheme”, in The Blade, retrieved 08 Apr 2026. From the entry reedy
My own boyhood has died in agony on this gaunt mishallowed rock grown weary in gazing so long upon the Pacific's meaningless settle and heave.1951, ODELL SHEPARD, WILLARD SHEPARD, JENKINS' EAR. From the entry mishallowed
The gaunt, hard-looking man is driving.1944, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, The Big Sleep (screenplay). From the entry high sign
The dry desert of my native land, her men grey and gaunt, their spines twisted, their feet shod with rowel and spur.1939, Henry Miller, The Cosmological Eye, page 246. From the entry rowel
In addition to other side effects, however, losing weight can make the face look old and gaunt, a sympton increasingly known among users and some doctors as "Ozempic face."2023 October 7, Paul Berton, Misfortune and Fame: 10 Reasons You Don’t Want to be Rich (or Famous), Douglas & McIntyre, →ISBN. From the entry Ozempic face
Police records say she then went to a shelter for domestic violence victims, limping, gaunt and covered in scars, including a burn shaped like a clothing iron.2012 July 12, A[ssociated] P[ress], “Advocate condemns attorney comments in abuse case”, in Tipton County Tribune, volume 122, number 164…. From the entry clothing iron
He asked after the hand mirror and in the mirror he learned his eyes were shoe black and his stitched face gaunt and worn down as the predead.2010, Robert Olmstead, Far Bright Star, page 152. From the entry predead
Thirty-four years ago a gaunt young Russian with a crew haircut took over the job as chief conductor in the orchestra pit of Moscow's Imperial Grand Theatre.1939 December 18, “Music: Rachmaninoff”, in Time, retrieved 11 Jan 2018. From the entry orchestra pit
His tall, gaunt, stringy figure is insensible to fatigue, and his dry, half-sarcastic, and often wholly unsympathetic manner is uninfluenced by any change in his surroundings.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC. From the entry unsympathetic

Meaning of gaunt

adjective Angular, bony, and lean.
adjective Unhealthily thin, as from hunger or illness: drawn, emaciated, haggard.
adjective Of a place or thing: bleak, desolate.

Full definition of gaunt

Questions about gaunt in a sentence

How do you use gaunt in a sentence?: Gaunt is used as an adjective. For example: “In winter, the bloomless trees looked gaunt and miserable.”
What is a short sentence with gaunt?: “The gaunt, hard-looking man is driving.”
What does gaunt mean?: Gaunt means angular, bony, and lean.

Adapted from Wiktionary: gaunt (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use gaunt in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/gaunt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.