Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Gaunt

Gaunt , adjective

[Compare Norw. gand a thin pointed stick, a tall and thin man, and Welsh gwan weak.]

Attenuated, as with fasting or suffering; lean; meager; pinched and grim.
The gaunt mastiff. — Pope
A mysterious but visible pestilence, striding gaunt and fleshless across our land. — Nichols