Lean vs Scarce - What's the difference?
lean | scarce | Related terms |
To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.
To incline in opinion or desire; to conform in conduct; with to'', ''toward , etc.
* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
To rest or rely, for support, comfort, etc.; with on'', ''upon'', or ''against .
* (1809-1892)
* , chapter=23
, title= To hang outwards.
To press against.
* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
(of a person or animal) slim; not fleshy.
(of meat) having little fat.
Having little extra or little to spare; scanty; meagre.
Of a fuel-air mixture, having more air than is necessary to burn all of the fuel; more air- or oxygen- rich than necessary for a stoichiometric reaction.
(printing, archaic) Of a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.
To thin out (a fuel-air mixture): to reduce the fuel flow into the mixture so that there is more air or oxygen.
* {{quote-magazine
, year=1938
, month=July
, author=Blaine and Dupont Miller
, title=Weather Hop
, page=25
, magazine=Boy's Life
, publisher=Boy Scouts of America
, issn=0006-8608
* {{quote-magazine
, year=2002
, month=July
, author=Tom Benenson
, title=Can Your Engine Run Too Lean?
, volume=129
, issue=7
, page=73
, magazine=Flying
, issn=0015-4806
Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.
* (John Locke)
* , chapter=3
, title= Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of .
* (John Milton)
Scarcely, only just.
* Milton
* 1854 , (Edgar Allen Poe), (The Raven):
* 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4:
* 1931 , William Faulkner, Sanctuary , Vintage 1993, p. 122:
Lean is a related term of scarce.
As a proper noun lean
is .As an adjective scarce is
uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.As an adverb scarce is
scarcely, only just.lean
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) ; via Proto-Indo-European with climate, cline.Verb
- They delight rather to lean to their old customs.
- He leaned not on his fathers but himself.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.}}
- His fainting limbs against an oak he leant .
Derived terms
* lean back * leaning * lean on * lean-toEtymology 2
From (etyl) .Adjective
(er)- a lean''' budget; a '''lean harvest
- lean copy, matter, or type
Synonyms
* See alsoVerb
(en verb)citation, passage=He leaned the mixture in an effort to cause a backfire through the carburetor, the generally accepted method of breaking the ice loose. }}
citation, passage=Even the Pilot's Operating Handbooks (POH) for our training airplanes add to our paranoia with their insistence that we not lean the mixture until we're above 5000 feet density altitude. }}
Etymology 3
Icelandic (leyna)?; akin to (etyl) word for "deny". Compare .See also
*References
* *scarce
English
(wikipedia scarce)Adjective
(er)- You tell him silver is scarcer now in England, and therefore risen one fifth in value.
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
- A region scarce of prey.
Adverb
(-)- With a scarce well-lighted flame.
- And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure that I heard you [...].
- Yet had I scarce set foot in the passage when I stopped, remembering how once already this same evening I had played the coward, and run home scared with my own fears.
- Upon the barred and slitted wall the splotched shadow of the heaven tree shuddered and pulsed monstrously in scarce any wind.