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Meanings of tenuous in English

Lacking substance or significance; a fragile claim to fame"

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Synonyms
Examples for "thin"
Examples for "thin"
1
Young and thin, Miss Leroy never gave Olson Read a second thought.
Haunted: a novel of stories
2
She'd gone out with a too-tall, too-thin history major for several months.
Chocolate chip cookie murder
3
Still, analysts said given the thin trading volume, volatility will likely prevail.
Reuters
4
Muhyiddin has had a razor-thin majority since coming to power in March.
Reuters
5
The not so thin blue line meant sure escape was not possible.
The Irish Times
1
Young Nicolaus did admirably, his slight young body going a good distance.
The Memoirs of Cleopatra
2
But get under way as soon as possible.' Again the slight hesitation.
Man of War
3
In recent years, Greece's much-criticised pension system has seen a slight improvement.
The Guardian
4
That said; don't allow a slight chill to impact on personal relationships.
The South African
5
Women's power to make decisions also showed slight improvement in some cases.
Reuters
1
However, markets remain volatile and consumer sentiment is fragile, the company said.
The Irish Times
2
Liikanen said the euro zone was still in a very fragile situation.
Reuters
3
In Canterbury the health system remains fragile and is facing enormous challenges.
Radio NZ
4
Their day's repair work underlined how fragile the island's power system remains.
The Guardian
5
Great care must be taken not to damage the pyramids' fragile structures.
News.com.au
1
The material composing the cloak was in general exceedingly light and flimsy.
The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 7: ...
2
The whole flimsy furniture in the chambers of the general mind vanished.
The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 1 (of 4)
3
Just says really, a few flimsy pages stapled in a paper cover.
The thirteenth tale: a novel
4
The email server has been a particularly effective attack despite being flimsy.
Radio NZ
5
Abu Fadi was building a flimsy structure for his family of 11.
The Guardian
Usage of tenuous in English
1
Violence long preceded computer games, so the link is tenuous at best.
Wired
2
US secretary of state, John Kerry, acknowledged the tenuous situation in Kobani.
The Guardian
3
Still, this strikes me as a rather tenuous way of securing information.
The Guardian
4
Orthodox molecular models often bear a tenuous relationship to the coordinate data.
Pubmed
5
The relationship you draw between migration and productivity therefore seems somewhat tenuous.
Radio NZ
6
I passed my hand over the card and ended our tenuous contact.
The Great Book of Amber
7
Now Rydag was gone, and her tenuous link to Durc was gone.
The Mammoth Hunters
8
And the protein network that does form is tender, tenuous, and fragile.
On food and cooking: the science and lore of the kitchen
9
Moreover these extremely tenuous creatures took a peculiar joy in manipulating solids.
Last and First Men
10
From the timber on the opposite shore came a tenuous smoke skein.
Man-Size
11
Jook sat silently, recognizing how tenuous his grasp on power was becoming.
Genellan: planetfall
12
Britain's position was becoming more tenuous, and we had to fix it.
The Guardian
13
Our household was being held together by the most tenuous of threads.
Marley & me: life and love with the world's worst dog
14
But then the truth fell like a knife, severing the tenuous connection.
Origin
15
Attaching Lucy's damaged organs to Piper's would be the most tenuous part.
Indivisible
16
This could be the last straw in an already very tenuous picture.
Danielle Steel
About this term
More collocations
Tenuous through the time
Tenuous across language varieties
Ireland
Common
United States of America
Common
United Kingdom
Less common