Smallness of quantity, or smallness in proportion to the wants or demands; deficiency defeat of plenty; penury; as a scarcity of grain; a great scarcity of beauties; a scarcity of lovely women. Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value to its scarcity. A scarcity of snow would raise a mutiny at Naples.

Rareness; infrequency. The value of an advantage is enhanced by its scarceness. Root of scarcity, the mangold-wurzel, a variety of the white beet.