Tenuous

3 definitions found

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

  Tenuous \Ten"u*ous\, a. [L. tenuis thin. See {Thin}, and cf.
     {Tenuis}.]
     1. Thin; slender; small; minute.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Rare; subtile; not dense; -- said of fluids.


        [1913 Webster]
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  tenuous
       adj 1: having little substance or significance; "a flimsy excuse";
              "slight evidence"; "a tenuous argument"; "a thin plot"
              [syn: {flimsy}, {slight}, {thin}]
       2: having thin consistency; "a tenuous fluid"
       3: very thin in gauge or diameter; "a tenuous thread"

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

  132 Moby Thesaurus words for "tenuous":
     adulterated, aerial, air-built, airy, aloof, atomic, attenuate,
     attenuated, boyish, broken, chimerical, cloud-built, corpuscular,
     cut, dainty, delicate, detached, diaphanous, dilute, diluted,
     disconnected, discontinuous, discrete, doubtful, dreamlike,
     dubious, embryonic, ethereal, evanescent, fanciful, fatuitous,
     fatuous, feeble, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, flimsy, fragile,
     frail, gapped, gaseous, gauzy, germinal, girlish, gossamer,
     gossamery, gracile, granular, hazy, illusory, imaginary,
     impalpable, imperceptible, imponderable, inappreciable, incoherent,
     inconsistent, indiscernible, infinitesimal, insignificant,
     insubstantial, intangible, invisible, lacy, light, microcosmic,
     microscopic, misty, molecular, nebulous, negligible, nonadherent,
     nonadhesive, noncoherent, noncohesive, open, paltry, papery,
     phantomlike, rare, rarefied, reedy, shadowy, shaky, sketchy,
     slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim, slimmish, slinky,
     small, spirituous, subatomic, subtile, subtle, svelte, sylphlike,
     thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinned, thinned-out,
     thinnish, threadlike, trifling, twiggy, ultramicroscopic,
     unadhesive, uncoherent, uncohesive, uncompact, uncompressed,
     unconnected, unjoined, unreal, unseeable, unsubstantial,
     untenacious, vague, vaporous, wasp-waisted, watered, watered-down,
     watery, weak, willowy, windy, wiredrawn, wispy