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/, SAMPA: /"skE@s/
• (US) IPA: /ˈskɛɚs/, SAMPA: /"skE@`s/

• Audio (US)

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Adjective

scarce (comparative scarcer, superlative scarcest)

1. Insufficient to meet a demand or requirement.
2. Difficult to find, due to scarcity.

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) Macedonian: оскуден (mk) (óskuden) m. 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.
   • 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