All 4 Uses of
scarcity
in
Jacob Have I Loved
- They always know when you need them too much and pick precisely that season to make themselves scarce.†
Chpt 6scarce = in short supply OR barely or hardly (by a small margin)
- We didn't have our tea break after the first week because tin was becoming scarce and the Captain was short on canned milk.†
Chpt 7
- in the mountains where doctors were scarce
Chpt 19 *scarce = available less than desired
- There was such a scarcity of high land on Rass that for generations we had buried our dead in our front yards.†
Chpt 4
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."