Slight vs Scarce - What's the difference?
slight | scarce | Related terms |
Small, weak or gentle; not decidedly marked; not forcible; inconsiderable; unimportant; insignificant; not severe.
* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
* (John Locke) (1632-1705)
* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
, chapter=2 Not stout or heavy; slender.
* Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
(obsolete) Foolish; silly; weak in intellect.
To treat as slight or not worthy of attention, to make light of.
* Cowper
To treat with disdain or neglect.
To act negligently or carelessly.
(military, of a fortification) To render no longer defensible by full or partial demolition.
To make even or level.
To throw heedlessly.
* Shakespeare
The act of slighting; a deliberate act of neglect or discourtesy.
* (Benjamin Franklin)
Sleight.
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:
Slight is a related term of scarce.
As adjectives the difference between slight and scarce
is that slight is small, weak or gentle; not decidedly marked; not forcible; inconsiderable; unimportant; insignificant; not severe while scarce is uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.As a verb slight
is to treat as slight or not worthy of attention, to make light of.As a noun slight
is the act of slighting; a deliberate act of neglect or discourtesy.As an adverb scarce is
scarcely, only just.slight
English
Adjective
(er)- Slight is the subject, but not so the praise.
- Some firmly embrace doctrines upon slight grounds.
citation, passage=Mother very rightly resented the slightest hint of condescension. She considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom,
- his own figure, which was formerly so slight
- (Hudibras)
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* slightish * slightly * slightnessVerb
(en verb)- the wretch who slights the bounty of the skies
- (Clarendon)
- (Hexham)
- The rogue slighted me into the river.
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* slightinglyNoun
(wikipedia slight) (en noun)- Never use a slighting expression to her, even in jest; for slights in jest, after frequent bandyings, are apt to end in angry earnest.
- (Spenser)
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* put a slight uponReferences
(Webster 1913)Anagrams
* lightsscarce
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.