Scantness

scant  (sknt)

adj. scant·er, scant·est

1. Barely sufficient: paid scant attention to the lecture.

2. Falling short of a specific measure: a scant cup of sugar.

3. Inadequately supplied; short: We were scant of breath after the lengthy climb.

tr.v. scant·ed, scant·ing, scants

1. To give an inadequate portion or allowance to: had to scant the older children in order to nourish the newborn.

2. To limit, as in amount or share; stint: Our leisure time is scanted by this demanding job.

3. To deal with or treat inadequately or neglectfully; slight.

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[Middle English, from Old Norse skamt, neuter of skammr, short.]

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scantly adv.

scantness n.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

scantness - the quality of being meager; "an exiguity of cloth that would only allow of miniature capes"-George Eliot exiguity, leanness, meagerness, meagreness, scantiness, poorness inadequacy, deficiency, insufficiency - lack of an adequate quantity or number; "the inadequacy of unemployment benefits" wateriness - meagerness or poorness connoted by a superfluity of water (in a literary style as well as in a food); "the haziness and wateriness of his disquisitions"; "the wateriness of his blood"; "no one enjoys the burning of his soup or the wateriness of his potatoes" abstemiousness - restricted to bare necessities spareness, sparseness, sparsity, thinness - the property of being scanty or scattered; lacking denseness