Scant1. (superl.) Not full, large, or plentiful; scarcely sufficient; less than is wanted for the purpose; scanty; meager; not enough; as, a scant allowance of provisions or water; a scant pattern of cloth for a garment.
2. (superl.) Sparing; parsimonious; chary.
3. (v. t.) To limit; to straiten; to treat illiberally; to stint; as, to scant one in provisions; to scant ourselves in the use of necessaries.
4. (v. t.) To cut short; to make small, narrow, or scanty; to curtail.
5. (v. i.) To fail, or become less; to scantle; as, the wind scants.
6. (adv.) In a scant manner; with difficulty; scarcely; hardly.
7. (n.) Scantness; scarcity.
Thesaurus Entries
Lenten, Spartan, abstemious, angustifoliate, angustirostrate, angustisellate, angustiseptal, arrested, ascetic, austere, bankrupt in, bare of, begrudge, bereft of, bound, callow, cheeseparing, chinchy, chintzy, circumscribed, close, close-fitting, condition, confine, confined, constricted, contain, copyright, cramp, cramped, crowded, defective, deficient, denuded of, deprived of, destitute of, devoid of, discipline, draw the line, dwarfed, dwarfish, embryonic, empty of, exiguous, failing, famish, for want of, forlorn of, frugal, grudge, hedge about, hypoplastic, immature, impoverished, in arrear, in arrears, in default, in default of, in short supply, in want of, inadequate, incapacious, incommodious, incomplete, infant, infrequent, insufficiency, insufficient, isthmian, isthmic, jejune, lacking, lean, limit, limited, live upon nothing, meager, mean, miserly, missing, moderate, narrow, near, needing, niggard, niggardly, out of, out of pocket, paltry, parsimonious, part, partial, patchy, patent, paucity, piddling, pinch, pinch pennies, poor, poverty, puny, qualify, rare, register, restrain, restrict, restricted, save-all, scamp, scant of, scanty, scarce, scarceness, scattered, scrappy, scrawny, screw, scrimp, scrimping, scrimpy, seldom met with, seldom seen, short, short of, shy, shy of, sketchy, skimp, skimping, skimpy, slender, slight, slim, small, spare, sparing, sparse, specialize, spotty, sprinkled, starvation, starve, stingy, stint, stinted, strait, straiten, straitened, stunted, subsistence, thin, tight, tightfisted, unblessed with, underdeveloped, undeveloped, unnourishing, unnutritious, unpossessed of, void of, wanting, watered, watery