scantiness

• I do not mean to blame these imitations with much harshness; in long performances they are scarcely to be avoided; and in shorter they may be indulged, because the train of the composition may naturally involve them, or the scantiness of the subject allow little choice. —  The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II
• Mr Hill met us each morning at breakfast, his honest countenance beaming with kindness, and jocularly apologised for the scantiness of the fare. —  Paddy Finn
• The room exhibited the same age and scantiness, the same aspect of cold poverty, with its patched carpet and the slender fire smouldering on the hearth She stood before him, confronting him with a manner in which boldness and timidity seemed to be struggling with about equal success. —  Before the Dawn A Story of the Fall of Richmond
• 1.00 As stated in the preface, this narrative of the life of the famous king is the result of a thoughtful study of his character and an earnest effort to be as accurate as the scantiness of material and the thousand years' interval would permit I have sought to live my life worthily ALFRED THE GREAT TAPPAN, E.M In the Days of Queen Elizabeth Lothrop. —  A Mother's List of Books for Children
• This detail of it has only been as an excuse for the scantiness of our observations on the most interesting part of the country through which we passed The north side of the Methye Portage is in latitude 56° 41' 40" N. and longitude 109° 52' 0" W. It is, by our course, one hundred and twenty-four miles from Isle ŕ la Crosse, and considered as a branch of the Missinippi, five hundred and ninety-two miles from the Frog Portage. —  Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819-20-21-22, Volume 1

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