All 28 Uses
scarcity
in
The Odyssey, by Homer - (translated by: Pope)
(Auto-generated)
- Scarce all my herds their luxury suffice; Scarce all my wine their midnight hours supplies.†
Book 2 *scarce = in short supply OR barely or hardly (by a small margin)
- Scarce all my herds their luxury suffice; Scarce all my wine their midnight hours supplies.†
Book 2
- Still labouring on, till scarce at last we found Great Jove propitious, and our conquest crown'd.†
Book 3
- Which scarce the sea-fowl in a year o'erfly); Go then; to Sparta take the watery way, Thy ship and sailors but for orders stay; Or, if my land then choose thy course to bend, My steeds, my chariots, and my songs, attend; Thee to Atrides they shall safe convey, Guides of thy road, companions of thy way.†
Book 3
- Observant of his word, tire word scarce spoke, The sons obey, and join them to the yoke.†
Book 3
- So when Aurora sought Orion's love, Her joys disturbed your blissful hours above, Till, in Ortygia Dian's winged dart Had pierced the hapless hunter to the heart, So when the covert of the thrice-eared field Saw stately Ceres to her passion yield, Scarce could Iasion taste her heavenly charms, But Jove's swift lightning scorched him in her arms.†
Book 5
- where scarce in safety sails The best-built ship, though Jove inspires the gales.†
Book 5
- Whoe'er thou art, I shall not blindly join Thy pleaded reason, but consult with mine: For scarce in ken appears that distant isle Thy voice foretells me shall conclude my toil.†
Book 5
- Now, scarce withdrawn the fierce earth-shaking power, Jove's daughter Pallas watch'd the favouring hour.†
Book 5
- That moment, fainting as he touch'd the shore, He dropp'd his sinewy arms: his knees no more Perform'd their office, or his weight upheld: His swoln heart heaved; his bloated body swell'd: From mouth and nose the briny torrent ran; And lost in lassitude lay all the man, Deprived of voice, of motion, and of breath; The soul scarce waking in the arms of death.†
Book 5
- The ball dismissed, in dance they skim the strand, Turn and return, and scarce imprint the sand.†
Book 8
- Such was the wine: to quench whose fervent steam Scarce twenty measures from the living stream To cool one cup sufficed: the goblet crown'd Breathed aromatic fragrances around.†
Book 9
- Big-udder'd ewes, and goats of female kind (The males were penn'd in outward courts behind); Then, heaved on high, a rock's enormous weight To the cave's mouth he roll'd, and closed the gate (Scarce twenty four-wheel'd cars, compact and strong, The massy load could bear, or roll along).†
Book 9
- Scarce with these few I 'scaped; of all my train, Whom angry Neptune, whelm'd beneath the main, The scattered wreck the winds blew back again.'†
Book 9
- The direful wreck Ulysses scarce survives!†
Book 11
- Ulysses at his country scarce arrives!†
Book 11
- There Ephimedia trod the gloomy plain, Who charm'd the monarch of the boundless main: Hence Ephialtes, hence stern Otus sprung, More fierce than giants, more than giants strong; The earth o'erburden'd groan'd beneath their weight, None but Orion e'er surpassed their height: The wondrous youths had scarce nine winters told, When high in air, tremendous to behold, Nine ells aloft they rear'd their towering head, And full nine cubits broad their shoulders spread.†
Book 11
- Touch'd at the sight from tears I scarce refrain, And tender sorrow thrills in every vein; Pensive and sad I stand, at length accost With accents mild the inexorable ghost: 'Still burns thy rage?†
Book 11
- Scarce the famed Argo pass'd these raging floods, The sacred Argo, fill'd with demigods!†
Book 12
- Full fifty pregnant females each contain'd; The males without (a smaller race) remain'd; Doom'd to supply the suitors' wasteful feast, A stock by daily luxury decreased; Now scarce four hundred left.†
Book 14
- Scarce ended thus the prince, when on the right Advanced the bird of Jove: auspicious sight!†
Book 15
- The hero reascends: the prince o'erawed Scarce lifts his eyes, and bows as to a god, Then with surprise (surprise chastised by fears): "How art thou changed!†
Book 16
- Scarce had he spake, when, turning to the strand, Amphinomos survey'd the associate band; Full to the bay within the winding shores With gather'd sails they stood, and lifted oars.†
Book 16
- Swift from above descends the royal fair (Her beauteous cheeks the blush of Venus wear, Chasten'd with coy Diana's pensive air); Hangs o'er her son, in his embraces dies; Rains kisses on his neck, his face, his eyes: Few words she spoke, though much she had to say; And scarce those few, for tears, could force their way.†
Book 17
- With timorous awe From the dire scene the exempted two withdraw, Scarce sure of life, look round, and trembling move To the bright altars of Protector Jove.†
Book 22
- So, when by hollow shores the fisher-train Sweep with their arching nets the roaring main, And scarce the meshy toils the copious draught contain, All naked of their element, and bare, The fishes pant, and gasp in thinner air; Wide o'er the sands are spread the stiffening prey, Till the warm sun exhales their soul away.†
Book 22
- I scarce uplift my eyes, Nor dare to question; doubts on doubts arise.†
Book 23
- a sudden tempest roars, And whirls him groaning from his native shores: How on the barbarous Laestrigonian coast, By savage hands his fleet and friends lie lost; How scarce himself survived: he paints the bower, The spells of Circe, and her magic power; His dreadful journey to the realms beneath, To seek Tiresias in the vales of death; How in the doleful mansions lie survey'd His royal mother, pale Anticlea's shade; And friends in battle slain, heroic ghosts!†
Book 23
Definitions:
-
(1)
(scarcity) shortage (having an amount that is less than desired)
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) More rarely (and typically in classic literature), scarce can be short for scarcely or hardly or barely or by a small margin -- such as in "She was scarce ten years old," or "I scarce know why."