scant

Etymology

Adjective and determiner from Middle English scant, from Old Norse skamt, neuter of skammr (“short”), from Proto-Germanic *skammaz (“short”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱem- (“mutilated, hornless”). Verb from Middle English scanten, from the adjective. Noun and adverb from Middle English scant, from the adjective.

adj

1. Not full, large, or plentiful; scarcely sufficient; scanty; meager.
   a scant allowance of provisions or water; a scant pattern of cloth for a garment
   His sermon was scant, in all, a quarter of an hour. 1824, John Watkins, Life of Hugh Latimer
   Another major defect of the current literature dealing with the nomenclature of hybrid forms of English is the scant attention paid to the question of frequency. 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 4
   The mainstream media hones in on bad news stories where UK railways are concerned, yet gives scant attention to the many items of good news emerging from the network. December 29 2021, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Aylesbury (2009)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 61
2. Sparing; parsimonious; chary.

verb

1. (transitive) To limit in amount or share; to stint.
   to scant someone in provisions; to scant ourselves in the use of necessaries
2. (intransitive) To fail, or become less; to scantle.
   The wind scants.

det

1. Very little, very few.
   After his previous escapades, Mary had scant reason to believe John.
   (as pronoun) The failure of this project has scant to do with me.
   [Minnesota Senator Steve] Daines isn’t the only example of right-wing politicians who wish to wield anti-Semitism as a convenient cudgel against their political enemies, with scant if any evidence. But Montana’s vanishingly small Jewish population makes it particularly clear that this strategy has little to do with flesh-and-blood Jews at all. 2019-7-17, Talia Lavin, “When Non-Jews Wield Anti-Semitism as Political Shield”, in GQ

noun

1. A small piece or quantity.
   A blonde appeared from the officers' room, wearing a scant of material that passed for issued undergarments. 2020, Nathaniel DeZago, Cries of Battle: Selstra
2. (uncommon) Scarcity; lack.
   As soon as the corpse was placed on the pile, and some prayers muttered by the attendant Bramin, fire was set to it at one of the corners, and the wood being dry, and in great quantity, it soon blazed up and consumed the body to ashes, without any noisome smell, such as however does not unfrequently happen if there is a scant of wood, or rain intervenes to damp it. 1757, John-Henry Grose, A voyage to the East-Indies, with observations on various parts there, page 360
   I was greatly surprised, however, in this very fertile and abundant country, to find so great a scant of provisions in the inns. 1831, Derwent Conway, Switzerland, the South of France and the Pyrenees, page 224
   Even if labour were diverted to a great extent from our grand staple, the cotton manufacture, we are not prepared to admit that the country would be worse off. The worst that could happen in such a case would be, that for a few years, during the inordinate progress of railways, our population would run short of shirts and shifts. If the woollen manufacture be the theme, there would be a scant of coats and petticoats; or if the earthenware manufacture, there must be fewer teapots and pipkins. 1846, J T Hackett, Ability of the public to make the projected railways, reprinted in The Railway Register Vol. IV, page 144 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MEsFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA144&dq=%22scant%22
3. (masonry) A block of stone sawn on two sides down to the bed level.
4. (masonry) A sheet of stone.
5. (wood) A slightly thinner measurement of a standard wood size.

adv

1. (uncommon or old-fashioned) With difficulty; scarcely; hardly.