Definition of "scant" in English

adjective

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

2. Sparing; parsimonious; chary.

3. (cooking, of a measurement) Slightly diminished; just short of the amount described.

   • a scant cup of sugar

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.

determiner

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.

noun

1. A small piece or quantity.

2. (uncommon) Scarcity; lack.

   • 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.

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.

adverb

1. (uncommon or dated) With difficulty; scarcely; hardly.