scarce

American  

[skairs] / skɛərs /

adjective

scarcer, scarcest

1. insufficient to satisfy the need or demand; not abundant.

   Meat and butter were scarce during the war.

   Synonyms:

   deficient

   Antonyms:

   abundant

2. seldom met with; rare.

   a scarce book.

   Synonyms:

   infrequent, uncommon

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adverb

1. scarcely.

idioms

1. make oneself scarce,

   1. to depart, especially suddenly.

   2. to stay away; avoid.

scarce British  

/ skɛəs /

adjective

1. rarely encountered

2. insufficient to meet the demand

3. informal to go away, esp suddenly

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adverb

1. archaic scarcely

scarce More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing scarce

• make oneself scarce

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Other Word Forms

• scarceness noun
• unscarce adjective
• unscarcely adverb
• unscarceness noun

Etymology

Origin of scarce

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English scars, from Old North French (e)scars, from Vulgar Latin excarpsus (unrecorded) “plucked out,” from Latin excerptus; excerpt

Example Sentences

Government and industry optimized our weapons to be ever more exquisite, expensive and scarce.

From The Wall Street Journal

“For the entirety of modern economic history, human intelligence has been the scarce input,” Citrini wrote in a post it described as a scenario dated June 2028, not a prediction.

From The Wall Street Journal

Last week it posted the strongest weekly gain of the group, signaling renewed relative strength at a time when leadership has been scarce.

From Barron's

For years, researchers have observed that people who live at high elevations, where oxygen is scarce, tend to develop diabetes less often than those at sea level.

From Science Daily

Plump quarterly payments are relatively scarce, so the fund’s top holdings cover mostly familiar ground: oil, soda, fighter jets, pills, cigarettes, and for those with the moral flexibility for it, phone service.

From Barron's

Related Words

• deficient
• limited
• rare
• scant
• scanty
• sparse
• sporadic