different between exiguous vs cramped

English

Etymology

From Latin exiguus (“strict, exact”), from exigere (“to measure against a standard”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???z??ju.?s/, /???z??ju.?s/

Adjective

exiguous (comparative more exiguous, superlative most exiguous)

1. scanty; meager
   • 1889 — Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrong Box ch XIII

     The herdboy in the broom, already musical in the days of Father Chaucer, startles (and perhaps pains) the lark with this exiguous pipe.

   • 1912 — G. K. Chesterton, Manalive ch VII

     The path on which I then planted my feet was quite unprecedentedly narrow. I had never had to walk along a thoroughfare so exiguous.

   • 1998 — Michael Ignatieff, Rebirth of a Nation: An Anatomy of Russia. New Statesman, Feb 6.

     They are entering the market, setting up stalls on snowy streets, moonlighting to supplement exiguous incomes.

   • 2012 — Rodger Cohen, Scottexalonia Rising, New York Times, Nov. 26., Op. Ed.

     National politics, as President François Hollande of France is only the latest to discover, is often no more than tweaking at the margins in the exiguous political space left by markets and other global forces.

Derived terms

• exiguate
• exiguity
• exiguously
• exiguousness
• unexiguous

Related terms

• exigency

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?æmpt/

Verb

cramped

1. simple past tense and past participle of cramp

Adjective

cramped (comparative more cramped, superlative most cramped)

1. Uncomfortably restricted in size, or financially.

   • Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

2. Overcrowded or congested.
3. Tight because of or like suffering a cramp.
4. Illegible.

Translations