scanty

English

Etymology

scant + -y

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈskænti/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ænti

Adjective

scanty (comparative scantier, superlative scantiest)

  1. Somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.
    • 1864–1865, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend:
      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, 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; stingy.
    • I. Watts.
      In illustrating a point of difficulty, be not too scanty of words.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

See also

Further reading

  • scanty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • scanty in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
  • scanty at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

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