scarce
adjective
[ skɛːs ]
• (especially of food, money, or some other resource) insufficient for the demand.
• "as raw materials became scarce, synthetics were developed"
Similar:
in short supply,
short,
scant,
scanty,
meagre,
sparse,
hard to find,
hard to come by,
not enough,
too little,
insufficient,
deficient,
inadequate,
lacking,
wanting,
at a premium,
like gold dust,
not to be had,
scarcer than hen's teeth,
paltry,
negligible,
thin,
exiguous,
scarce
adverb
• scarcely.
• "a babe scarce two years old"
Origin:
Middle English (in the sense ‘restricted in quantity or size’, also ‘parsimonious’): from a shortening of Anglo-Norman escars, from a Romance word meaning ‘plucked out, selected’.
