scant

1. (transitive) To limit in amount or share; to stint.Examples: "to scant someone in provisions; to scant ourselves in the use of necessaries"; "Scant not my cups."; "where man hath a great living laid together and where he is scanted"transitive

2. (intransitive) To fail, or become less; to scantle.Examples: "The wind scants."intransitive

1. (uncommon) Scarcity; lack.Examples: "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."; "I was greatly surprised, however, in this very fertile and abundant country, to find so great a scant of provisions in the inns."; "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."uncommon

2. (masonry) A block of stone sawn on two sides down to the bed level.

3. (masonry) A sheet of stone.

4. (wood) A slightly thinner measurement of a standard wood size.

1. (uncommon or dated) With difficulty; scarcely; hardly.Examples: "[A]ske a Stoicke vvhich Philoſophy is true, he vvil preferre his ovvne. Then aske him vvhich approacheth next the truth, he vvill confeſſe the Academiques. So deale vvith the Epicure, that vvill ſcant indure the Stoicke to be in ſight of him, ſo ſoone as he hath placed himſelfe, he vvill place the Academiques next him."; "So weak that he was scant able to go down the stairs."datednot-comparableuncommon