- if something is scarce, there is not enough of it and it is only available in small quantities
- scarce resources
- Details of the accident are scarce.
- Food was becoming scarce.
Extra Examples- Money was extremely scarce after the war.
- Skilled workers were becoming increasingly scarce.
- Butterflies are getting scarcer and scarcer in industrialized areas.
- Land suitable for building on is scarce.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- seem
- become
- …
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
Word OriginMiddle English (in the sense ‘restricted in quantity or size’, also ‘mean’): from a shortening of Anglo-Norman escars, from a Romance word meaning ‘plucked out, selected’.
Idioms
See scarce in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee scarce in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishmake yourself scarce
- (informal) to leave somewhere and stay away for a time in order to avoid an unpleasant situation
- I could see he was annoyed so I made myself scarce.
Check pronunciation:
scarce