scantness

scant

S0121700 (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.

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

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scant′ly adv.scant′ness n.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

scantness - the quality of being meager; "an exiguity of cloth that would only allow of miniature capes"-George Eliotexiguity, leanness, meagerness, meagreness, scantiness, poornessinadequacy, 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 necessitiesspareness, sparseness, sparsity, thinness - the property of being scanty or scattered; lacking denseness

scantness

nounThe condition or fact of being deficient:defect, deficiency, deficit, inadequacy, insufficiency, lack, paucity, poverty, scantiness, scarceness, scarcity, shortage, shortcoming, shortfall, underage.