Marginal

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Marginal \Mar"gin*al\, a. [Cf. F. marginal.]
     1. Of or pertaining to a margin.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Written or printed in the margin; as, a marginal note or
        gloss.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. At the lower limit; barely sufficient; as, of marginal
        utility.
        [PJC] marginal cost

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  marginal
       adj 1: at or constituting a border or edge; "the marginal strip of
              beach" [syn: {fringy}]
       2: of questionable or minimal quality; "borderline grades";
          "marginal writing ability" [syn: {borderline}]
       3: of a bare living gained by great labor; "the sharecropper's
          hardscrabble life"; "a marginal existence" [syn: {hardscrabble}]
       4: just barely adequate or within a lower limit; "a bare
          majority"; "a marginal victory" [syn: {bare(a)}]
       5: producing at a rate that barely covers production costs;
          "marginal industries"; "marginal land"
       6: of something or someone close to a lower limit or lower
          class; "marginal abilities"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  41 Moby Thesaurus words for "marginal":
     bordering, borderline, boundary, bounding, coastal, determinant,
     determinative, determining, disputable, doubtful, dubious, extreme,
     fringing, frontier, inferior, infinitesimal, insignificant, limbic,
     liminal, limit, limiting, littoral, low-priority, minimal,
     negligible, no great shakes, of no account, of no consequence,
     of no matter, of no significance, on the edge, questionable,
     rimming, secondary, skirting, slight, small, terminal, threshold,
     tiny, unimportant
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  marginal adj. [common] 1. [techspeak] An extremely small change. "A
     marginal increase in {core} can decrease {GC} time drastically." In
     everyday terms, this means that it is a lot easier to clean off your
     desk if you have a spare place to put some of the junk while you sort
     through it. 2. Of little merit. "This proposed new feature seems rather
     marginal to me." 3. Of extremely small probability of {win}ning. "The
     power supply was rather marginal anyway; no wonder it fried."
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  marginal
       
           1. Extremely small.  "A marginal increase in {core}
          can decrease {GC} time drastically."  In everyday terms, this
          means that it is a lot easier to clean off your desk if you
          have a spare place to put some of the junk while you sort
          through it.
       
          2. Of extremely small merit.  "This proposed new feature seems
          rather marginal to me."
       
          3. Of extremely small probability of {win}ning.  "The power
          supply was rather marginal anyway; no wonder it fried."
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (1994-10-21)