SG Heritage Dictionary

Scarce [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Not plentiful or abundant; being in small quantity in proportion to the demand. We say, water is scarce wheat, rye, barley is scarce money is scarce when the quantity is not fully adequate to the demand.

2. Being few in number and scattered; rare; uncommon. Good horses are scarce

3. The scarcest of all is a Pescennius Niger on a medallion well preserved.

Scarce [Adverb] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Alt. of Scarcely

Scarce [Superlative] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon.

2. Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); -- with of.

3. Sparing; frugal; parsimonious; stingy.

Scarcely [Adverb] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Hardly; scantly.

2. We scarcely think our miseries our foes.

3. Hardly; with difficulty.

4. Slowly he sails, and scarcely stems the tides.

Scarcely [Adverb] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. With difficulty; hardly; scantly; barely; but just.

2. Frugally; penuriously.

Scarcement [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

An offset where a wall or bank of earth, etc., retreats, leaving a shelf or footing.

Scarceness [\N] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. SCARCENESS ,

2. SCARCITY, noun

3. Smallness of quantity, or smallness in proportion to the wants or demands; deficiency defeat of plenty; penury; as a scarcity of grain; a great scarcity of beauties; a scarcity of lovely women.

4. Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value to its scarcity.

5. A scarcity of snow would raise a mutiny at Naples.

6. Rareness; infrequency.

7. The value of an advantage is enhanced by its scarceness

8. Root of scarcity, the mangold-wurzel, a variety of the white beet.

Scarceness [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Alt. of Scarcity

Infrequency Roget’s Thesaurus §137

N. infrequency, rareness, rarity, fewness &c. # 103, seldomness, uncommonness

V. be rare

Adj. unfrequent, infrequent, rare, rare as a blue diamond, few, scarce, almost unheard of, unprecedented, which has not occurred within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, not within one's previous experience, not since adam, scarce as hen's teeth, one in a million, few and far between

Adv. seldom, rarely, scarcely, hardly, not often, not much, infrequently, unfrequently, unoften, scarcely, scarcely ever, hardly ever, once in a blue moon, once, once in a blue moon, once in a million years, once for all, once in a way, pro hac vice

Phr. ein mal kein mal

Insufficiency Roget’s Thesaurus §640

N. insufficiency, inadequacy, inadequateness, incompetence, deficiency, imperfection, shortcoming, paucity, stint, scantiness, none to spare, bare subsistence, scarcity, dearth, want, need, lack, poverty, exigency, inanition, starvation, famine, drought, dole, mite, pittance, short allowance, short commons, half rations, banyan day, emptiness, poorness, depletion, vacancy, flaccidity, ebb tide, low water, "a beggarly account of empty boxes", indigence, insolvency

V. be insufficient, not suffice, come short of run dry, want, lack, need, require, caret, be in want, live from hand to mouth, render insufficient, drain of resources, impoverish, stint, put on short allowance, do insufficiently, scotch the snake

Adj. insufficient, inadequate, too little, not enough, unequal to, incompetent, "weighed in the balance and found wanting", perfunctory, deficient, wanting, &c. v, imperfect, ill-furnished, ill-provided, ill- stored, ill-off, slack, at a low ebb, empty, vacant, bare, short of, out of, destitute of, devoid of, bereft of, denuded of, dry, drained, unprovided, unsupplied, unfurnished, unreplenished, unfed, unstored, untreasured, empty-handed, meager, poor, thin, scrimp, sparing, spare, stinted, starved, starving, halfstarved, famine-stricken, famished, jejune, scant, scarce, not to be had, not to be had for love or money, not to be had at any price, scurvy, stingy, at the end of one's tether, without resources, in want, in debt

Adv. insufficiently, in default of, for want of, failing

Phr. semper avarus eget

King James Bible KJV Bible

Berean Standard Bible BSB Bible

8 KJV and 2 BSB verses contain “Scarce”

Genesis 27:30

And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

As soon as Isaac had finished blessing him and Jacob had left his father’s presence, his brother Esau returned from the hunt.

Deuteronomy 8:9

A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper.

1 Samuel 3:1

And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.

And the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. Now in those days the word of the LORD was rare and visions were scarce.

Isaiah 13:12

I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.

Acts 14:18

And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.

Even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could hardly stop the crowds from sacrificing to them.

Acts 27:7

And when we had sailed slowly many days, and scarce were come over against Cnidus, the wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete, over against Salmone;

After sailing slowly for many days, we arrived off Cnidus. When the wind impeded us, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone.

Romans 5:7

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.

1 Peter 4:18

And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

Sirach 21:20

A fool lifteth up his voice with laughter; but a wise man doth scarce smile a little.

Sirach 32:7

Speak, young man, if there be need of thee: and yet scarcely when thou art twice asked.