scant

English

Etymology

Middle English, from Old Norse skamt, neuter of skammr (“short”), from Proto-Germanic *skamma-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skænt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænt

Adjective

scant (comparative scanter, superlative scantest)

1. Very little, very few.

   "After his previous escapades, Mary had scant reason to believe John."

2. Not full, large, or plentiful; scarcely sufficient; scanty; meager; not enough.

   a scant allowance of provisions or water; a scant pattern of cloth for a garment

   • Ridley

     His sermon was scant, in all, a quarter of an hour.

3. Sparing; parsimonious; chary.
   • Shakespeare

     Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence.

Synonyms

• (very little, few): few, little, slight
• (rare, scarce): geason

Antonyms

• (very little, few): ample, plenty

Derived terms

• scanty

Related terms

• scantily

Translations

very little

• Czech: pramalý m
• Dutch: gering (nl), karig (nl)
• Finnish: niukka (fi)
• French: insuffisant (fr), rare (fr), maigre (fr)
• German: spärlich (de), gering (de), dürftig (de), knapp (de), kaum (de)

• Hebrew: מעט מאוד‎ (méat méod)
• Italian: scarso (it) m, esiguo (it) m
• Portuguese: escasso (pt) m
• Russian: недоста́точный (ru) (nedostátočnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: gann

Verb

scant (third-person singular simple present scants, present participle scanting, simple past and past participle scanted)

1. (transitive) To limit in amount or share; to stint.

   to scant someone in provisions; to scant ourselves in the use of necessaries

   • Shakespeare

     Scant not my cups.

   • Francis Bacon

     where man hath a great living laid together and where he is scanted

   • Dryden

     I am scanted in the pleasure of dwelling on your actions.

2. (intransitive) To fail, or become less; to scantle.

   The wind scants.

Noun

scant (plural scants)

1. (masonry) A block of stone sawn on two sides down to the bed level.
2. (masonry) A sheet of stone.
3. (wood) A slightly thinner measurement of a standard wood size.

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see Citations:scant.

Adverb

scant (not comparable)

1. With difficulty; scarcely; hardly.
   • Fuller

     So weak that he was scant able to go down the stairs.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

Anagrams

• can'st, canst, cants, casn't