Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.

Gaunt

Gaunt as a wolf.
—Austin Dobson

Gaunt as a gibbet.
—Lord De Tabley

Gaunt as bitterns in the pools.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gaunt,
Like the drear soul of poverty.
—T. Gordon Hake

Gaunt as a greyhound.
—John Ray (Handbook of Proverbs, 1670)

Gaunt as a grave.
—William Shakespeare

Gaunt as it were the skeleton of himself.
—Alfred Tennyson