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Cheerful; sprightly; lively; merry. "The canty dame." Wordsworth [Scot. & Prov. Eng.] Contented with little, and canty with mair. Burns.

ing amplitude or extent; narrow; small; not abundant. his dominions were very narrow and scanty. Locke. Now scantier limits the proud arch confine. Pope.

That which is dealt out; a part, share, or portion also, a scanty share or allowance.

with out, the notion conveyed being to add to, or piece out by a laborious, inferior, or scanty addition; as, to eke out a scanty supply of one kind with some other. "To eke my pain." Spenser. He eked out by his wits an income of barely fifty pounds. Macaulay.

; to take in; as, natural philosophy embraces many sciences. Not that my song, in such a scanty space, So large a subject fully can embrace. Dryden.

of strength; to reduce the strength or force of; to weaken; to debilitate. Enfeebled by scanty subsistence and excessive toil. Prescott.

Scanty; small; slender; diminutive. [R.] "Exiguous resources." Carlyle. -- Ex*ig"uous*ness, n. [R.]

utter extempore or off-hand; to prepare in great haste, under urgent necessity, or with scanty or unsuitable materials; as, to extemporize a dinner, a costume, etc. Themistocles . . . was of all men the best able to extemporize the right thing to be done. Jowett (Thucyd. ). Pitt, of whom it was said that he could exte…

A genus of trees (Celtis) related to the elm, but bearing drupes with scanty, but often edible, pulp. C. occidentalis is common in the Eastern United States. Gray.

To subdue the appetites of by poor and scanty diet; to mortify. Baker.

rtility, strength, or the like; defective in quantity, or poor in quality; poor; barren; scanty in ideas; wanting strength of diction or affluence of imagery. "Meager soil." Dryden. Of secular habits and meager religious belief. I. Taylor. His education had been but meager. Motley.

A promontory; as, the Mull of Cantyre. [Scot.]

Not bountiful or liberal; scanty. Here creeps along a poor, penurious stream. C. Pitt.

Not full, large, or plentiful; scarcely sufficient; less than is wanted for the purpose; scanty; meager; not enough; as, a scant allowance of provisions or water; a scant pattern of cloth for a garment. His sermon was scant, in all, a quarter of an hour. Ridley.

In a scanty manner; not fully; not plentifully; sparingly; parsimoniously. His mind was very scantily stored with materials. Macaulay.

Quality condition of being scanty.

Not plentiful; small; scanty. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

Short; scanty; curtailed.

Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty; as, a short supply of provisions, or of water.

Having little wit; not wise; having scanty intellect or judgment.