Adjective

(en adjective)

(dated) Constrained; restrained; confined.

* c.1846-1848 , , Chapter 14: Paul grows more and more Old-fashioned, and goes Home for the Holidays,

Neither Mr Toots nor Mr Feeder could partake of this or any other snuff, even in the most stinted and moderate degree, without being seized with convulsions of sneezing.

* 1853 , Currer Bell ( , Chapter XXVI: A Burial,

Mr. Home himself offered me a handsome sum—thrice my present salary—if I would accept the office of companion to his daughter. I declined. I think I should have declined had I been poorer than I was, and with scantier fund of resource, more stinted narrowness of future prospect.

* 1890 , , Chapter XIII: The Color Line in New York,

Nevertheless, he has always had to pay higher rents than even these for the poorest and most stinted rooms.

Adjective

(er)

Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.

* (John Locke)

You tell him silver is scarcer now in England, and therefore risen one fifth in value.

* , chapter=3

, title= 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.}}

Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of .

* (John Milton)

A region scarce of prey.