Literary notes about scant (AI summary)
The word "scant" is often used to connote a sense of insufficiency or barely adequate amount in literature, serving as a subtle yet powerful descriptive tool. It can characterize physical or abstract qualities—from the meager supplies of a traveler [1] and the narrow width of a pond [2], to the limited acknowledgment of someone's efforts or attributes [3, 4]. Authors employ it to heighten dramatic tension, whether by highlighting a deficiency in natural resources [5] or emphasizing a lack of respect or ceremony in social interactions [6, 7]. In each instance, "scant" enriches the narrative by drawing attention to the delicate balance between abundance and dearth.
- I have chosen my boat, and laid in my scant stores.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - The pond, oblong in shape, had a width so scant compared to its length that, with its ends out of view, it might have been taken for a scant river.
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - This poem received scant notice from the reviewers, who had pounced like hawks on a dovecote upon Tennyson's first two modest volumes.
— from English Literature by William J. Long - With her sensitive nature all disapproval had weight, even the disapproval of those for whose opinions she had scant respect.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery - It is possible that many rooms depended wholly on artificial light or on the scant rays coming through open doors.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - “Yes—those very ones,” interrupted Rogojin, impatiently, and with scant courtesy.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Altogether, my aunt used to treat him with scant ceremony.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
