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