scantness

And maybe the scantness of the apron could be seen as a comment on "food insecurity."

Tie (or button) one on - A Dress A Day 2006

Have we not seen the mockery crown and sceptre of the exiled St.arts in St. Peter's? the medal struck so lately as 1784 with its legend, HEN IX MAG BRIT ET HIB REX, whose contractions but faintly typify the scantness of the fact?

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 121, November, 1867 Various

Here haply when the rest was spent, and scantness of food set them to eat their thin bread, and with hand and venturous teeth do violence to the round cakes fraught with fate and spare not the flattened squares: _Ha!

The Aeneid of Virgil 70 BC-19 BC Virgil

Her satin dress was a mere sheath, so conspicuous by its severity and scantness that every one in the dining-room stared.

The song of the lark 1915

Her satin dress was a mere sheath, so conspicuous by its severity and scantness that every one in the dining-room stared.

The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather 1915

Her satin dress was a mere sheath, so conspicuous by its severity and scantness that every one in the dining-room stared.

The Song of the Lark Willa Sibert Cather 1910

Men who had served in other prisons -- and their combined experiences covered a great many -- were unanimous and emphatic in declaring that the table at Atlanta was the worst they had ever known, not only as to scantness of supply, but as to the unwholesomeness or positively poisonous quality of the food furnished.

The Subterranean Brotherhood Julian Hawthorne 1890

His heart feels a fresh bound; he feels neither strain of limb nor scantness of breath, and, searching as he runs, he descries before him in the plain the deceitful sire alone.

Hawaiian Folk Tales A Collection of Native Legends 1887

But her progress was slow, owing to the scantness of the wind, and for the next ten days they were able to accomplish only a few miles a day, the current running strong against them.

In Search of El Dorado Harry Collingwood 1886

If the old-time opinion that a woman whose name is a jest with men has lost her claims to respect, Mr.. Amanda Welsh Sampson might be supposed to have little ground for the inner anger she felt at the scantness of the courtesy with which she was treated by Mr. Irons.

The Philistines Arlo Bates 1884