marginal

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 \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
 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."
    

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 {win}ning.  "The power
   supply was rather marginal anyway; no wonder it fried."

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1994-10-21)
    

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