How to Use gaunt in a Sentence

gaunt

adjective
  • He left the hospital looking tired and gaunt.
  • Jacob was gaunt and sullen, his beard tied in two long braids.
    — Zach Williams, The New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2022
  • The old man was now gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck.
    — SI.com, 26 June 2019
  • Stripped of their leaves and bark, trees become gaunt skeletons.
    — Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 31 Oct. 2024
  • Then a gaunt old girl lit out over the ridge, and the others broke and followed.
    — Fred C. Mercer, Outdoor Life, 14 Aug. 2025
  • The schoolmaster was tall and thin with a hunched back and a deep scowl on his gaunt face.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 25 June 2022
  • The face that looked back at her in the rearview mirror was gaunt, her skin pale around glassy hazel eyes.
    — Glenn E. Rice, Kansas City Star, 7 Jan. 2025
  • The face that looked back at her in the rearview mirror was gaunt, her skin pale around glassy hazel eyes.
    — Glenn E. Rice, Kansas City Star, 7 Jan. 2025
  • Yet his face is now gaunt, with a way of clouding into melancholy.
    — Nathan Heller, Vogue, 4 Jan. 2022
  • The hostages appeared gaunt in the disturbing black-and-white footage.
    — Andrea Vacchiano, Fox News, 2 Sep. 2024
  • Then an ambulance crew rolls a gaunt man with one leg toward me on a stretcher.
    — Gina Siddiqui, New York Times, 16 Dec. 2019
  • And in a third, the gaunt 30-year-old killer flexes, purses his lips and squints.
    — Michael Ruiz, FOXNews.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Egon Schiele had his thing for gaunt girls and their undergarments.
    — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 14 Apr. 2025
  • Their sullen faces appear pale and gaunt having gone without food and water for weeks.
    — Rhea Mogul, CNN, 27 Dec. 2022
  • Molly is gaunt, with rotting teeth and scabs dotting her face — a severe case.
    — New York Times, 11 May 2021
  • The gaunt stillness of the high-ceiling space, that remains pretty much the same.
    — John King, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Sep. 2022
  • Dzyadko, who is strikingly tall and thin, looked even more pale and gaunt than usual.
    — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2023
  • The gaunt killer, dressed in a gray suit, declined the judge’s final offer to address the court.
    — New York Times, 14 June 2022
  • Nobody wanted to see a gaunt cancer patient out of breath, trying to tell jokes.
    — Geoff Edgers, Washington Post, 29 May 2022
  • Even when Navalny was a gaunt prisoner, Putin seemed afraid of him.
    — The Editors, National Review, 16 Feb. 2024
  • Those emerging from the Old City at this late stage in the fight were weak, injured, gaunt and pale.
    — Washington Post, 5 July 2017
  • In the distance, a line of tall gaunt leafless trees becomes visible.
    — Ritesh Mehta, IndieWire, 17 Feb. 2025
  • In the video Yerushalmi appears gaunt, with dark circles under her eyes.
    — Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, 3 Sep. 2024
  • When the dance was over, the teacher, looking gaunt and wasted, held the cat in her arms and bowed, shoulders slumped.
    — Christopher Benfey, The New York Review of Books, 26 Aug. 2020
  • Stepping out from a white van, the Israeli civilian looked gaunt and frightened.
    — Mick Krever, CNN, 30 Jan. 2025
  • Nan’s skinny body, for example, or Benjamin’s gaunt frame in the bath.
    — Cressida Leyshon, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023
  • The glow of the screen cast a sickly pallor on his gaunt face, highlighting the shadows beneath his eyes.
    — Adi Robertson, The Verge, 24 May 2023
  • Binta, a gaunt woman whose eyes mirror the pain of a hard life and whose hands are rough from farming, was widowed five years ago.
    — Michelle Faul, Orange County Register, 6 Jan. 2017
  • But new photos of the 54-year-old actor looking pale and gaunt have fans worrying about his health.
    — Kim Willis, USA TODAY, 3 June 2018
  • Daniil Medvedev is tall and gaunt, with a patchy mustache under his long, sharp nose and a scrappy goatee on his chin.
    — Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gaunt.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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