scarce

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Northern Old French scars, escars ( > French échars), from Late Latin *scarsus, probably originally a participle form of *excarpere (“take out”), from Latin ex- + carpere.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈskɛːs/, X-SAMPA: /"skE@s/
• (US) IPA: /ˈskɛɚs/, X-SAMPA: /"skE@`s/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

scarce (comparative scarcer, superlative scarcest)

1. Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.

Translations

Translations

• Arabic: نادر (nāder)
• Chinese: 缺乏 (quēfá)
• Czech: vzácný (cs) m
• Dutch: schaars (nl)
• Estonian: napp
• Filipino: kakulangan
• Finnish: niukka (fi)
• French: rare (fr)
• German: spärlich (de)
• Hungarian: ritka (hu)
• Italian: scarso (it)
• Japanese: 稀な (まれな, marena)

• Korean: 드문 (deumun)
• Latvian: trūcīgs (lv)
• Macedonian: оскуден (mk) (óskuden) m
• Maori: onge (mi), ongeonge (mi)
• Persian: ناکافی (nakafi), کمیاب (kamyâb), نادر (nâdir)
• Portuguese: escasso
• Russian: скудный (ru) (skúdnyj) 
• Scottish Gaelic: gann, ainneamh (gd)
• Spanish: escaso (es)
• Swahili: nadra (sw)
• Swedish: knapp (sv)
• Turkish: nadir, ender, nadide

Adverb

scarce (not comparable)

1. (now literary, archaic) Scarcely, only just.
   • Milton

     With a scarce well-lighted flame.

   • 1854, Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven:

     And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure that I heard you [...].

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4:

     Yet had I scarce set foot in the passage when I stopped, remembering how once already this same evening I had played the coward, and run home scared with my own fears.

   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, p. 122:

     Upon the barred and slitted wall the splotched shadow of the heaven tree shuddered and pulsed monstrously in scarce any wind.

See also

• make oneself scarce

Anagrams

• arcsec