Adjective

(er)

Affected by hunger; desiring of food; having a physical need for food.

My kids go to bed hungry every night because I haven't got any money .

(figuratively) Eager, having an avid desire ('appetite') for something.

* Charles Kingsley

The cruel, hungry foam.

* Shakespeare

Cassius has a lean and hungry look.

Not rich or fertile; poor; barren; starved.

a hungry soil

* Shakespeare

The hungry beach.

Adjective

(er)

Somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.

* {{quote-book, year=1864–1865, author=Charles Dickens, title=

, passage=Present on the table, one scanty' pot of tea, one '''scanty''' loaf, two '''scanty''' pats of butter, two ' scanty rashers of bacon, two pitiful eggs, and an abundance of handsome china bought a secondhand bargain.}}

* {{quote-book, year=1979, author=by B. Jonson, title=

, passage=Traditions older than paleoarctic, as scanty as the evidence may be, show clearly that colonization of Alberta and even as far north as southern Alaska came from the south.}}

Sparing; niggardly; parsimonious.

* I. Watts.

In illustrating a point of difficulty, be not too scanty of words.