1. Wanting amplitude or extent; narrow; small; not abundant.
His dominions were very narrow and scanty.
Locke.
Now scantier limits the proud arch confine.
Pope. 2. Somewhat less than is needed; insufficient; scant; as, a scanty supply of words; a scanty supply of
bread.
3. Sparing; niggardly; parsimonious.
In illustrating a point of difficulty, be not too scanty of words.
I. Watts. Syn. — Scant; narrow; small; poor; deficient; meager; scarce; chary; sparing; parsimonious; penurious; niggardly; grudging.
Scape
(Scape) n. [L. scapus shaft, stem, stalk; cf. Gr. a staff: cf. F. scape. Cf. Scepter.]
1. (Bot.) A peduncle rising from the ground or from a subterranean stem, as in the stemless violets,
the bloodroot, and the like.
2. (Zoöl.) The long basal joint of the antennæ of an insect.
3. (Arch.) (a) The shaft of a column. (b) The apophyge of a shaft.
Scape
(Scape), v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Scaped ; p. pr. & vb. n. Scaping.] [Aphetic form of escape.]
To escape. [Obs. or Poetic.] Milton.
Out of this prison help that we may scape.
Chaucer. Scape
(Scape), n.
1. An escape. [Obs.]
I spake of most disastrous chances, . . .
Of hairbreadth scapes in the imminent, deadly breach.
Shak. 2. Means of escape; evasion. [Obs.] Donne.
3. A freak; a slip; a fault; an escapade. [Obs.]
Not pardoning so much as the scapes of error and ignorance.
Milton. 4. Loose act of vice or lewdness. [Obs.] Shak.
Scapegallows
(Scape"gal`lows) n. One who has narrowly escaped the gallows for his crimes. [Colloq.]
Dickens.
Scapegoat
(Scape"goat`) n. [Scape (for escape) + goat.]
1. (Jewish Antiq.) A goat upon whose head were symbolically placed the sins of the people, after which
he was suffered to escape into the wilderness. Lev. xvi. 10.
2. Hence, a person or thing that is made to bear blame for others. Tennyson.
Scapegrace
(Scape"grace`) n. A graceless, unprincipled person; one who is wild and reckless. Beaconsfield.
Scapeless
(Scape"less), a. (Bot.) Destitute of a scape.
Scapement
(Scape"ment) n. [See Scape, v., Escapement.] Same as Escapement, 3.
