 |
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Scarce \Scarce\, Scarcely \Scarce"ly\, adverb
1. With difficulty; hardly; scantly; barely; but just.
With a scarce well-lighted flame. --Milton.
The eldest scarcely five year was of age. --Chaucer.
Slowly she sails, and scarcely stems the tides. --Dryden.
He had scarcely finished, when the laborer arrived who had been sent for my ransom. --W. Irving.
2. Frugally; penuriously. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Scarce \Scarce\ (sk[^a]rs), adjective [Compar. {Scarcer} (sk[^a]r"s[~e]r); superl. {Scarcest}.] [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, excarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see {Ex-}) + carpere. See {Carpet}, and cf. {Excerp}.]
1. Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon.
You tell him silver is scarcer now in England, and therefore risen one fifth in value. --Locke.
The scarcest of all is a Pescennius Niger on a medallion well preserved. --Addison.
2. Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); -- with of. [Obs.] ''A region scarce of prey.'' --Milton.
3. Sparing; frugal; parsimonious; stingy. [Obs.] ''Too scarce ne too sparing.'' --Chaucer.
{To make one's self scarce}, to decamp; to depart. [Slang]
Syn: Rare; infrequent; deficient. See {Rare}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
scarce
adjective
1: not enough; hard to find; "meat was scarce during the war"
2: deficient in quantity or number compared with the demand; "fresh vegetables were scarce during the drought" [ant: {abundant}]
adverb: by a small margin; "they could barely hear the speaker"; "we hardly knew them"; "just missed being hit"; "had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open"; "would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave"- W.B.Yeats [syn: {barely}, {hardly}, {just}, {scarcely}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
55 Moby Thesaurus words for "scarce": almost unheard-of, at a premium, barely, cheeseparing, chinchy, chintzy, curtailed, deficient, exiguous, failing, few, hardly, in short supply, inadequate, infrequent, insufficient, lacking, meager, miserly, niggardly, occasional, out of print, out of season, out of stock, piddling, poor, rare, scant, scanty, scarcely, scattered, scrimping, scrimpy, seldom, seldom met with, seldom seen, shortened, shy, skimping, skimpy, slim, slow, sparse, sporadic, spotty, sprinkled, stingy, thin, tight, truncated, uncommon, unfrequent, unique, unusual, wanting
 |
Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |