Definition of "scant" []

• Barely sufficient: paid scant attention to the lecture. (adjective)
• Falling short of a specific measure: a scant cup of sugar. (adjective)
• Inadequately supplied; short: We were scant of breath after the lengthy climb. (adjective)
• To give an inadequate portion or allowance to: had to scant the older children in order to nourish the newborn. (verb-transitive)
• To limit, as in amount or share; stint: Our leisure time is scanted by this demanding job. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Apple refuses to use Ogg Theora in Safari because of what it calls scant hardware support and an "uncertain patent landscape.""
• "But scant is robust evidence at early developmental stages for a lower dN/dS ratio."
• "They've been around since before World War II, but their use on sporting rifles has always been limited to custom guns, and then in scant numbers."