scant

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Barely sufficient: paid scant attention to the lecture.
2. adj. Falling short of a specific measure: a scant cup of sugar.
3. adj. Inadequately supplied; short: We were scant of breath after the lengthy climb.
4. v. To give an inadequate portion or allowance to: had to scant the older children in order to nourish the newborn.
5. v. To limit, as in amount or share; stint: Our leisure time is scanted by this demanding job.
6. v. To deal with or treat inadequately or neglectfully; slight.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Short in quantity; scarcely sufficient; rather less than is wanted for the purpose; not enough; scanty: as, a scant allowance of provisions or water; a scant piece of cloth for a garment.
2. Sparing; parsimonious; chary.
3. Having a limited or scanty supply; scarce; short: with of.
4. Nautical, of the wind, coming from a direction such that a ship will barely lie her course even when close-hauled.
5. n. Scarcity; scantiness; lack.
6. Scarcely; hardly.
7. Scantily; sparingly.
8. To put on scant allowance; limit; stint: as, to scant one in provisions or necessaries.
9. To make small or scanty; diminish; cut short or down.
10. To be niggard or sparing of; begrudge; keep back.
11. Nautical, of the wind, to become less favorable; blow in such a direction as to hinder a vessel from continuing on her course even when close-hauled.

Wiktionary

1. adj. very little, very few
2. n. A block of stone sawn on two sides down to the bed level.
3. n. A sheet of stone.
4. n. A slightly thinner measurement of a standard wood size.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Not full, large, or plentiful; scarcely sufficient; less than is wanted for the purpose; scanty; meager; not enough.
2. adj. Sparing; parsimonious; chary.
3. v. To limit; to straiten; to treat illiberally; to stint.
4. v. To cut short; to make small, narrow, or scanty; to curtail.
5. v. To fail, or become less; to scantle.
6. adv. In a scant manner; with difficulty; scarcely; hardly.
7. n. Scantness; scarcity.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. work hastily or carelessly; deal with inadequately and superficially
2. v. limit in quality or quantity
3. v. supply sparingly and with restricted quantities
4. adj. less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so