• Scanty

    Pronunciation

    • Rhymes: -ænti

    Origin

    scant + -y

    Full definition of scanty

    Adjective

    scanty

    1. Somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.
      • 1864–1865, Charles Dickens, S:Our_Mutual_Friend/Book_2/Chapter_5, Present on the table, one scanty pot of tea, one scanty loaf, two scanty pats of butter, two scanty rashers of bacon, two pitiful eggs, and an abundance of handsome china bought a secondhand bargain.
      • 1979, by B. Jonson, S:Amerigine, Traditions older than paleoarctic, as scanty as the evidence may be, show clearly that colonization of Alberta and even as far north as southern Alaska came from the south.
    2. Sparing; niggardly; parsimonious.
      • I. Watts.In illustrating a point of difficulty, be not too scanty of words.

    Derived terms

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