scanty

English

Etymology

scant +‎ -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskænti/

• Audio (US)

  (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.

   A girl dressed in scanty clothing

   • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC:

     In illustrating a point of difficulty, be not too scanty of words.

Derived terms

• scantily
• scantiness

Translations

somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent

• Bulgarian: недостатъчен (bg) (nedostatǎčen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不足的, 贫乏的

• French: maigre (fr), insuffisant (fr)
• Galician: insuficiente, pobre (gl)
• Georgian: მწირი (mc̣iri), შეზღუდული (šezɣuduli)
• German: dürftig (de), kärglich (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: μανός (manós)

• Irish: gearreireaballach
• Korean: 부족한 (bujokhan)
• Latin: exiguus
• Portuguese: escasso (pt), insuficiente (pt)
• Romanian: redus (ro)
• Russian: ску́дный (ru) (skúdnyj)
• Spanish: escaso (es), exiguo (es)

sparing, niggardly — see niggardly,‎ stingy,‎ parsimonious

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} karig (nl), ^{(please verify)} schaars (nl), ^{(please verify)} schraal (nl), ^{(please verify)} schriel (nl)
• German: ^{(please verify)} knapp (de)
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} knapp (sv)

See also

• meagre
• scant
• slender
• insufficient
• deficient
• scarce
• exiguous

Further reading

• “scanty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “scanty”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “scanty”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Cantys