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make scarce

 - 3 dictionary results

scarce

  [skairs] adjective, scarc⋅er, scarc⋅est, adverb
Use make scarce in a Sentence
–adjective
1. insufficient to satisfy the need or demand; not abundant: Meat and butter were scarce during the war.
2. seldom met with; rare: a scarce book.
–adverb
3. scarcely.
—Idiom
4. make oneself scarce, Informal.
a. to depart, esp. suddenly.
b. to stay away; avoid.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME scars < ONF (e)scars < VL *excarpsus plucked out, for L excerptus; see excerpt

Related forms:
scarceness, noun

Synonyms:
1. deficient. 2. uncommon, infrequent.

Antonyms:
1. abundant.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Slang Dictionary
make (oneself) scarce

  1. 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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Word Origin & History

scarce 
c.1297, "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." Scarcely "hardly, only just" is from c.1297.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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