make scarce

adjective

insufficient to satisfy the need or demand; not abundant: Meat and butter were scarce during the war.

seldom met with; rare: a scarce book.

adverb

scarcely.

Idioms

make oneself scarce, Informal.

to depart, especially suddenly.

to stay away; avoid.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English scars < Old North French (e)scars < Vulgar Latin *excarpsus plucked out, for Latin excerptus; see excerpt

Related forms

scarce·ness, noun

un·scarce, adjective

un·scarce·ly, adverb

un·scarce·ness, noun

Can be confused: extinct, rare, scarce.

Synonyms
1. deficient. 2. uncommon, infrequent.

Antonyms
1. abundant.

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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World English Dictionary

scarce (skɛəs)

—*adj*
1.	rarely encountered
2.	insufficient to meet the demand
3.	informal make oneself scarce to go away, esp suddenly

—*adv*
4.	archaic, literary or scarcely

[C13: from Old Norman French scars, from Vulgar Latin excarpsus (unattested) plucked out, from Latin excerpere to select; see excerpt]

'scarceness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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00:10

Make scarce is always a great word to know.

So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

scarce

c.1300, "restricted in quantity," from O.N.Fr. scars (O.Fr. eschars) from V.L. *escarpsus, from *excarpere "pluck out," from L. excerpere "pluck out" (see excerpt). Phrase to make oneself scarce "go away" first attested 1809 in "Gil Blas." Related: Scarcely.

Slang Dictionary

make (oneself) scarce definition

tv.
to leave; to be in a place less frequently; to be less in evidence. : Here come the boys in blue. I'd better make myself scarce.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Matching Quote

"We teach boys to be such men as we are. We do not teach them to aspire to be all they can. We do not give them a training as if we believed in their noble nature. We scarce educate their bodies. We do not train the eye and the hand. We exercise their understandings to the apprehension and comparison of some facts, to a skill in numbers, in words; we aim to make accountants, attorneys, engineers; but not to make able, earnest, great- hearted men."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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