All 3 Uses of
scarcity
in
Listening for Lions
- Wherever I went, tea would be set out, weak tea where money was scarce.†
Book 2 *scarce = in short supply OR barely or hardly (by a small margin)
- Money is scarce, and committed as we are to India and China, we are stretched very thin.†
Book 3
- During the war, when medical students were scarce, the hospitals reluctantly threw open their doors.†
Book 3
Definitions:
-
(1)
(scarcity) shortage (having an amount that is less than desired)
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) 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."