scantness
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scant
(skănt)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.
[Middle English, from Old Norse skamt, neuter of skammr, short.]
scant′ly adv.
scant′ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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| Noun | 1. |  scantness - the quality of being meager; "an exiguity of cloth that would only allow of miniature capes"-George Eliotinadequacy, 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 |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
scantness
nounThe condition or fact of being deficient:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.