insufficient to satisfy the need or demand; not abundant

Meat and butter were scarce during the war.

seldom met with; rare

a scarce book.

scarcely. ?

make oneself scarce

Informal .

to depart, esp. suddenly.

to stay away; avoid.

adjective

abundant , frequent , plentiful , sufficient

adjective

at a premium , deficient , failing , few , few and far between , in short supply , limited , occasional , rare , scant , scanty , seldom , seldom met with , semioccasional , short , shortened , shy , sparse , sporadic , truncated , uncommon , unusual , wantingnotes:rare means not widely known or recurring only at long intervals or not widely distributed; scarce means not enough or deficient in quantity or number compared with the demand , inadequate , under , wanting , hardly , infrequent , insufficient , meager , unplentiful

adverb

hardly , just , scarcely