marginal

5 definitions found

marginal - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  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

marginal - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  marginal
      adj 1: at or constituting a border or edge; "the marginal strip
             of beach" [syn: fringy, marginal]
      2: of questionable or minimal quality; "borderline grades";
         "marginal writing ability" [syn: borderline, marginal]
      3: just barely adequate or within a lower limit; "a bare
         majority"; "a marginal victory" [syn: bare(a), marginal]
      4: producing at a rate that barely covers production costs;
         "marginal industries"

marginal - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  marginal
  
     <jargon> 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 winning.  "The power
     supply was rather marginal anyway; no wonder it fried."
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1994-10-21)
  

marginal - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  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 winning. "The power supply was
     rather marginal anyway; no wonder it fried."
  

marginal - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  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