Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Small or insufficient in amount, size, or extent.
- adjective Not covering a considerable amount of the body.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Lacking amplitude or extent; narrow; small; scant.
- Limited in scope, copiousness, fullness, or abundance; barely sufficient for use or necessity: as, a scanty wardrobe.
- Sparing; niggardly; parsimonious.
- Synonyms Short, insufficient, slender, meager.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Wanting amplitude or extent; narrow; small; not abundant.
- adjective Somewhat less than is needed; insufficient; scant.
- adjective Sparing; niggardly; parsimonious.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.
- adjective Sparing; niggardly; parsimonious.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun short underpants for women or children (usually used in the plural)
- adjective lacking in amplitude or quantity
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Tue 11/24/09 3: 54 PM to the contrary, I think the majority of movies have women and girls portrayed in scanty clothes and objectified roles.
'New Moon' polls: Switching teams? Bella really the best role model? | EW.com 2009
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It was a picture of a child clad in scanty rags, showing just enough skin to make me uncomfortable.
A Note about Alice I Have Been by author Melanie Benjamin 2010
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I mean by that, that their minds have been well trained but their actual knowledge of things is scanty from a lack of conventional education.
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To cross that exposed deck with a howling gale blowing and huge green seas coming aboard was no joke; and then to sit for two hours in scanty shelter watching Horses suffer besides!
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There were many sad spectacles among these survivors, many landing in scanty attire and with bare feet and frozen limbs, until the time came when the Society was able to step into the breach by maintaining on board each Rescue Ship, 100 sets of warm clothing, the sets being replenished each time the vessel returned from a rescue operation, and in this particular connection I should like to mention with deep gratitude the gifts in kind sent over to us by the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, whose association with the Society dates back a long time -- indeed to the First World War, in 1916, some 30 years ago.
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Kalandars sit upon a sofa at the side of the estrade, and seated the Caliph and Ja’afar and Masrur on the other side of the saloon; after which she called the Porter, and said, “How scanty is thy courtesy! now thou art no stranger; nay, thou art one of the household.”
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What now becomes of Dr. Miller's so-called scanty and superficial convolutions with small cranial measurements?
The Southern Sanitarium. Vol. 1, no. 4 (January 1, 1897) Lawson Andrew 1897
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I do not say "scanty;" on the contrary, there is plenty of it -- a great deal too much of it -- but it is the quality, the nature of the knowledge, which I quarrel with.
Science & Education Thomas Henry Huxley 1860
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A 9 billion euro stock offering would improve Deutsche Bank's credit quality, but the bank provided "scanty" information on sovereign exposures in non-trading accounts.
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Suma Chakrabarti, ex-permanent secretary at the department of international development, said that evidence of the situation in Iraq before the invasion was 'scanty'.
Informed Comment 2009
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