adjective
definition
Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.
definition
Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of.
adverb
definition
Scarcely, only just.
Examples of scarce in a Sentence
Wealthy people could afford to choose scarce antiques.
She made herself scarce.
Rain is very scarce, but the canals supply ample water for cultivation and all other purposes.
The soil is thus very productive, although water is scarce and bad.
Good water is everywhere so scarce that but for the rain preserved in cisterns the country would be mostly uninhabitable.
Books were very scarce and very precious, and only a few men could read them.
Marble appears to have been scarce, and was sparingly employed.
Smith, writing in the Philosophical Transactions for 1683-1684, says of the Turks (p. 439), "They have no genius for Seavoyages, and consequently are very raw and unexperienced in the art of Navigation, scarce venturing to sail out of sight of land.
Scarce a corner of Europe was safe from them.
From this time there was scarce a cause of importance in which he was not engaged.
But they've been very scarce for a few years and we usually have to be content with elephants or buffaloes, answered the creature, in a regretful tone.
There are a few species of fresh-water fish, but food-fishes are scarce both in the rivers and along the coast.
The active measures taken then and later reduced their numbers greatly, so that towards the end of the century they became scarce, but, as in the case of the sister island, the date of their final disappearance cannot now be ascertained.
First, many things in the physical world that we think of as scarce are not really scarce, just presently beyond our ability to capture.
These are scarce and consequently dear.
But it is in the colder northern regions that they are found in the greatest numbers and with the best fur or underwool, the top hair, which, with the exception of the scarce and very rich dark brown specimens they have in common with most aquatic animals, is pulled out before the skins are manufactured.
Water also was found to be scarce, and was sure to become scarcer during the summer months.
Potatoes and onions are grown for exportation at seasons when they are scarce in northern Europe.
Water isn't scarce either; we have had the same amount forever.
Water is very scarce, and is raised from wells of from 250 to 340 ft.
Cherry trees are scarce.
I'll try to make myself scarce.
Water is scarce and the plain is not much cultivated in consequence.
In,the vicinity of some of the deposits of argentiferous galena are large coal beds, but timber is scarce on the table-lands.
Boxwood has become scarce.
Fossil fuels are, without a doubt, scarce.
But while some large families, such as the Staphylinidae (rove-beetles) are especially abundant on the great northern continents, becoming scarcer in the tropics, others, the Cicindelidae (tiger-beetles), for example, are most strongly represented in the warmer regions of the earth, and become scarce as the collector journeys far to south or north.
Phosphates, necessary for the formation of skeletons and also for the nucleo-proteid of cells, are about as scarce as nitrogen.
Antelope of any kind are now scarce; a few white-tailed gnu are preserved.
Mountain and plain and Arctic hares and rabbits are plentiful or scarce in localities, according to seasons or other circumstances.
The low veld is everywhere covered with scrub, and water is scarce, the rivers being often dry in the winter season.
Lastly, mention should be made of a remarkable but scarce little tract by Gabriel Sacy, printed at Cairo in June 1902, and entitled Du regne de Dieu et de l'Agneau, connu sous le nom de Babysme.
Timber of economic value is scarce.
The title of Gunter's book, which is very scarce, is Canon triangulorum, and it contains logarithmic sines and tangents for every minute of the quadrant to 7 places of decimals.
These however are exceedingly scarce, and when a number are required to match for a large garment, considerable time may be necessary to collect them.
Money not only became less scarce but it became cheaper, so that the couple of pence for which a day of manual work was bought off in the beginning of the 13th century did not fetch more than half of their former value at its end.
Bread was dear and employment was scarce.
Silene Elizabethae - A richly beautiful and scarce alpine plant, the flowers looking more like those of some handsome but tiny Clarkia than of the Silenes commonly grown.
Choice and scarce varieties may be either potted up or planted out in a frame.
The finest of the American kinds is lutea, with bright yellow flowers, but this is still very scarce with us.
R. rubiginosum, a scarce kind which has proved fully hardy at Kew, its flowers bright rose spotted with crimson.
Though YouTube clips of the show itself are usually scarce due to copyrighting issues with the BBC, they may occasionally be available here.
Seed-bearing vegetables are comparatively scarce.
It is most abundant in the open districts of Patagonia, but also ranges on to the Argentina Pampas, where it is now scarce.
The caribou, moose, antelope, mountain sheep, beaver, otter and mink are scarce.
The larger bell-bird (Anthornis melanocephala) has become quite scarce; the magnificent fruit-pigeon (Carpophaga chathamensis), and the two endemic rails (Nesolimnas dieffenbachii and Cabalus modestus), the one of which was confined to Whairikauri and the other to Mangare Island, are extinct.
The last are of a noble appearance and exceedingly scarce.
In such a case the main drain of a watered meadow may form the conductor of the one to be watered, or a new conductor may be formed by a prolongation of the main drain; but either expedient is only advisable where water is scarce.
Owing to this reason, hired labour is very scarce.
Ecclesiastical records are represented by the episcopal registers (for the most part still unpublished), monastic cartularies, and other documents rendered comparatively scarce by the spoliation of the monasteries, and scattered proceedings of ecclesiastical courts.