scant
Americanadjective
-
barely sufficient in amount or quantity; not abundant; almost inadequate.
to do scant justice.
-
limited; meager; not large.
a scant amount.
- Synonyms:
- restricted, small, scanty
-
barely amounting to as much as indicated.
a scant two hours; a scant cupful.
-
having an inadequate or limited supply (usually followed byof ).
scant of breath.
verb (used with object)
adverb
adjective
-
scarcely sufficient; limited
he paid her scant attention
-
(prenominal) slightly short of the amount indicated; bare
a scant ten inches
-
having a short supply (of)
verb
-
to limit in size or quantity
-
to provide with a limited or inadequate supply of
-
to treat in a slighting or inadequate manner
adverb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
scantsimple
-
scantssimple
-
have scantedperfect
-
has scantedperfect
-
am scantingprogressive
-
are scantingprogressive
-
is scantingprogressive
-
have been scantingperfect progressive
-
has been scantingperfect progressive
Past
-
scantedsimple
-
had scantedperfect
-
was scantingprogressive
-
were scantingprogressive
-
had been scantingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scant
1325–75; Middle English (adj.) < Old Norse skamt, neuter of skammr short
Explanation
Scant is an adjective that means "a tiny amount," like your scant attendance at practice this week that results in being benched from the big game. Scant is also a verb, that means "to supply sparingly" — don't scant with the brownies, or I will keep asking for more. Scant also means "to deal with inadequately or carelessly." When you scant the reports on homelessness, they are so superficial on data that they don't reflect the real problem. Scant comes from the Old Norse word skamt, meaning "short, brief."
Vocabulary lists containing scant
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act I
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This Week in Words: October 21- 27, 2018
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "Q" "R" and "S"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Besides campaigning for Lindsey, Darline has a scant track record.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
While it may be scant consolation for those in communties around old urban motorways, bypasses like the one at Port Talbot are less likely to be built now.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
But more often, those fighting trafficking live in their own silos, doing their own work, and often failing or refusing to share even scant details with other jurisdictions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Regurgitating a pre-existing plot with scant evidence of a single new idea, the movie amounts to an abdication of human creativity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Molly’s own childhood memories are scant and partial.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
With new Simpson revelations ever scanter, the connected tale of his longtime friend A.C.
From Time Magazine Archive
On scant notice and even scanter knowledge, the TV executive must decide whether the threat is news to be covered, or a cruel, senseless display that the cameras will only encourage.
From Time Magazine Archive
Here the growths of mesquite and cactus became scanter, affording better travel but poor cover.
From The Lone Star Ranger, a romance of the border by Grey, Zane
Scant as are the traces of his labors as a legislator, even scanter are the records of his career on the bench during the six years that followed.
From Andrew Jackson by Brown, William Garrott
There was scant chance that the call would be carried to her by the boisterous wind, scanter chance still that, hearing it now in that mad rout, she would heed.
From On the Firing Line by Fuller, Hamilton Brock
If all you have is a faint recollection that a distant relative once bought you a bond, NS&I can find out for sure with the scantest of information, says Ms Waters.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2022
McKim, who made his name selling bundles of children’s books, usually has only the scantest notion about what will be inside.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 8, 2022
It has rounded corners and just the scantest of frames above and on the sides of it.
From The Verge ● Sep. 11, 2017
She saw herself as an archaeologist who could reconstruct the workings of an underground metropolis based on the scantest traces on the surface.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 8, 2017
The jammed together way of living made modesty impossible, or scantest decency—made the pictures of it among the aspiring few, usually for the benefit of religion or charitable visitors, a pitiful, grotesque hypocrisy.
From Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise by Phillips, David Graham
As the National Association of Scholars will soon publish in a comprehensive piece by S. Stanley Young and Warren Kindzierski, the Reference Manual pervasively scants the effects of modern science’s irreproducibility crisis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
While “Kissinger” scants the tapes, it leans precariously on one source.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2025
In her impressionistic portrait, Brown moves some events in time, combines others and scants certain family members — entirely omitting, for example, William’s son, John, a famous scientist in his own right.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 11, 2016
That is what fascinates Harold Nicolson, who scants history for personality, and arranges his book as a gallery of portraits bathed in the warm glow of idiosyncrasy rather than the cold light of 100% accuracy.
From Time Magazine Archive
Its inhabitants are meagre and stunted; it scants them both in food and drink.
From A Midsummer Drive Through the Pyrenees by Dix, Edwin Asa
Hospitals and heroic interventions got the large investments; incrementalists were scanted.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 15, 2017
The implications of the technology, on the other hand, are somewhat scanted.
From New York Times ● Jul. 5, 2016
Earlier biographies — the best is Lyndall Gordon’s — have somewhat scanted Eliot’s American childhood and youth, which is one reason why this new book is so valuable.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2015
Sadly scanted, however, are the American artists who heeded the siren call of Orientalism.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bad provisions, bad water, and scanted rations were dealt to the prisoners.
From American Prisoners of the Revolution by Dandridge, Danske
But focusing too intently on the play’s stimulating politics risks scanting its humor and its family dynamics.
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2017
In a production that is stilted, mannered and ludicrously stylized, Director John Barton appears to have rummaged through Peter Brook's wastebasket for directorial inspiration while scanting Shakespeare's genius.
From Time Magazine Archive
But high prices since the war have tempted most builders into cutting corners, cramping spaces, and scanting on wall thicknesses.
From Time Magazine Archive
Brecht made the astronomer into an opportunist and, scanting history, into a sensualist.
From Time Magazine Archive
The wind scanting upon us, we could not fetch the land, so that we were forced to ply to windward.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
