Scarce
scarce (adjective) - not enough
a scarce resource
scarce and expensive
an appropriate use of scarce resources
control over scarce resources
allocate scarce resources
channel scarce resources
scarce resources channelled to their highest return uses
spent scarce resources on project X
scarce food
harsh winters when food is scarce
rice has become scarce
yet another burden on scarce family resources
spend scarce money on alcohol rather than on food, clothing, housing and unpaid bills
necessary to carry a large amount of cash in case of chancing upon a scarce commodity
forbidden to export scarce consumer goods
scarce information
scarce documentation on this subject
local news is scarce
when staff are scarce
an increase in pay to attract scarce staff
scarce expertise
expertise in chemistry and technologies is often scarce in poor countries
when labour is scarce and has to be attracted from alternative employment
competing for scarce labour
scarce and expensive professionals
when the industry is expanding and labour is scarce
make yourself scarce, now!
I could see he was annoyed so I made myself scarce
scarce land
scarce developable land
scarce space
scarce landfill space
rationing scarce prison space
a scarce material
don't waste scarce resources
the deployment of scarce resources
merit the deployment of scarce resources
Example sentences:
* Information about our competitor's plans for the future is scarce.
* Foreigners were forbidden to export scarce consumer goods, unless purchased for hard currency.
Controls over foreign exchange, credits and scarce materials could hardly force anybody to expand.
* A logic of rationing scarce prison space means that you now need to wait in line to serve your jail term.
* Working in an industry that is in decline in an area where alternative employment is scarce makes job loss and consequent financial difficulty increasingly probable.
* Competition for scarce resources is seen by sociobiology as involving various forms of behaviour.
* Schooling is sometimes seen as yet another burden on scarce family resources.
* Paper is scarce around here.
* You can scarce know how little I care!
* Father hated to be disturbed when he had anybody with him and I could see he was annoyed so I made myself scarce.
* Bad management, lack of modern technology, droughts and insufficient agricultural investment have resulted in many African countries becoming net food importers so draining away some of their scarce foreign-currency earnings.
* However, self-governing hospitals (NHS Trusts) will have power to fix pay levels and few have suggested that this will result in a general fall in pay, indeed, a general increase in pay levels is anticipated in an attempt to attract scarce staff.
* Urban managers through their positions in influential institutions such as local authorities, building societies, estate agents and the like, could allocate scarce urban resources and thus influence service provision locally.
* Because expertise in chemistry and related sciences and technologies is often scarce in poor countries, they cannot develop natural resources to their own advantage, and they remain dependent on experts from industrialised countries.
* In the South East developable land is scarce and there is a powerful environmental lobby ranged against further development of what is already perceived as a congested and overheated local economy.
* Netting should also help to deter herons which can completely wipe out your fish population especially during harsh weather when food is scarce!
* Management may be prepared to pay this higher cost when labour is scarce and has to be attracted from alternative employment, or when a union is making strong demands for a higher quality of working life.
* I can scarce believe it!
* But then, a week later, she had a visit from a strange man enquiring for her father, and who, after being told of his demise, informed her he had been asked to sell the property for which he had felt able to assure her father he would get a good price, seeing that land around was scarce.
* When the industry is expanding and labour is scarce, management will obviously have less control over productivity.
* Agency workers are also paid by the hour, but the larger agencies, competing for scarce labour, have increasingly started to offer fringe benefits such as sickness and holiday pay.
* If you know what's good for you, you'll make yourself scarce before you wake the whole house….
* Low-level conflicts do not merit the deployment of scarce resources.
* Efficiency is achieved when scarce resources are channelled to their highest return uses.
* Fluctuations in staff availability are particularly disruptive, for periods of apparent shortage may be hard to tolerate and periods of relative overstaffing serve only to heighten discontentment when staff are scarce.
* A broad and imaginative approach to this problem is needed; the existing skill mix and the capacity of other health professionals to carry out tasks previously restricted to scarce and expensive professionals, such as doctors, must be examined.
* There are a few items of Interest, but generally, local news is scarce.
* Basic slag is another by-product of industrial processes that has become scarce due to changed methods.
* The government has spent scarce resources on its nuclear programme.
* In western Germany in 1990 the building industry produced more than five times as much rubbish as turned up in municipal solid waste, and most of it was simply tipped into Germany's scarce landfill space.
* Every unnecessary home blood test wastes 26p of scarce NHS resources.
* A distinction must be drawn between decisions about which patients will benefit from an intervention and whether offering the intervention to them is an appropriate use of scarce resources.
* "The sufferer from alcoholism may or may not hide bottles but will very rarely run out of stock altogether" because you never know when you might need to entertain someone. All sufferers from Chemical Dependency will tend to spend scarce money on alcohol or drugs rather than on food, clothing, housing or on unpaid bills.
* The measure was condemned by some economists as crude and ill-conceived, particularly since it threatened to wipe out the personal savings of many ordinary people: Soviet citizens were generally disinclined to place their money in accounts with the state savings bank, either because of mistrust, or because the low interest rate provided little incentive, or because it was necessary to carry a large amount of cash in case of chancing upon a scarce commodity which had suddenly come into stock in a state shop.
