dearth

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Such a dearth was there of these latter articles, that anything, even a little child's story-book, or the half of a shipping calendar, appeared like a treasure.

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A scarce supply; a lack: "the dearth of uncensored, firsthand information about the war” (Richard Zoglin).
  2. noun Shortage of food; famine.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples

  • Such a dearth was there of these latter articles, that anything, even a little child's story-book, or the half of a shipping calendar, appeared like a treasure. —  Two Years Before the Mast
  • If it remained below this mark, the higher fields failed in obtaining a due supply of water, and a dearth was the result. —  History of Egypt From 330 B.C. To the Present Time, Volume 10 (of 12)
  • Their inappropriate costume quickly attracted attention, and became the subject of general conversation, and, such a dearth was there of excitement, Lord Spencer Hamilton aroused feverish interest by laying a wager that before the night was out he would have the two strangers walking arm in arm. —  Inns and Taverns of Old London
  • Such a dearth was there of these latter articles, that anything, even a little child's story-book, or the half of a shipping calendar, seemed a treasure. —  Two Years Before the Mast
  • War, dearth, and death that all things ends? —  England's Antiphon
 

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Dearth has been looked up 600 times, favorited once, listed 68 times, and commented on 3 times.

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English derthe, from Old English *dēorthu, costliness, from dēore, costly; see dear1.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English derth, derthe, scarcity, preciousness (not in Anglo-Saxon) (= Old Saxon diurida = Old High German tiurida, Middle High German tiurde, tūrde = Icelandic dy¯rth); from dear + -th, formative of abstract nouns.
  2. from dearth, n.
 

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/dərθ/
by American Heritage

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