Definition of "scarce" []

• Insufficient to meet a demand or requirement; short in supply: Fresh vegetables were scarce during the drought. (adjective)
• Hard to find; absent or rare: Steel pennies are scarce now except in coin shops. (adjective)
• Barely or hardly; scarcely. (adverb)
• Make (oneself) scarce Informal To stay away; be absent or elusive. (idiom)
• Make (oneself) scarce Informal To depart, especially quickly or furtively; abscond. (idiom)

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.

• "Thus, _If cats are scarce, mice are plentiful_, contains two verbal clauses; but _if cats are scarce_ is conditional, not indicative; and _mice are plentiful_ is subject to the condition that _cats are scarce_."
• "A quarter century had passed since Douglas had hired the Court's first female clerk; that was during World War II, when male law students were in scarce supply."
• "Unfortunately, deals are in scarce supply from wineries directly."