What's the difference between little and scant?

Little


Definition:

  • (a.) Small in size or extent; not big; diminutive; -- opposed to big or large; as, a little body; a little animal; a little piece of ground; a little hill; a little distance; a little child.
  • (a.) Short in duration; brief; as, a little sleep.
  • (a.) Small in quantity or amount; not much; as, a little food; a little air or water.
  • (a.) Small in dignity, power, or importance; not great; insignificant; contemptible.
  • (a.) Small in force or efficiency; not strong; weak; slight; inconsiderable; as, little attention or exertion;little effort; little care or diligence.
  • (a.) Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow; shallow; contracted; mean; illiberal; ungenerous.
  • (n.) That which is little; a small quantity, amount, space, or the like.
  • (n.) A small degree or scale; miniature.
  • (adv.) In a small quantity or degree; not much; slightly; somewhat; -- often with a preceding it.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Prior to oral feeding, little or no ELA was detected in stools and endotoxinemia was ascertained in only six of 45 infants (13%).
  • (2) 8.43am BST A little more from that Field interview on Today.
  • (3) The omission of Crossrail 2 from the Conservative manifesto , in which other infrastructure projects were listed, was the clearest sign yet that there is little appetite in a Theresa May government for another London-based scheme.
  • (4) Not only do they give employers no reason to turn them into proper jobs, but mini-jobs offer workers little incentive to work more because then they would have to pay tax.
  • (5) Some commentators have described his ship, now facing more delays after a decade in development, as little more than a Heath Robinson machine.
  • (6) Marked enhancement of IFN-gamma production by T cells was seen in the presence of as little as 0.3% thymic DC.
  • (7) The origin of the aorta and pulmonary artery from the right ventricle is a complicated and little studied congenital cardiac malformation.
  • (8) Today’s figures tell us little about the timing of the first increase in interest rates, which will depend on bigger picture news on domestic growth, pay trends and perceived downside risks in the global economy,” he said.
  • (9) It is a place that occupies two thirds of our planet but very little is known of vast swaths of it.
  • (10) The authors conclude that H. pylori alone causes little or no effect on an intact gastric mucosa in the rat, that either intact organisms or bacteria-free filtrates cause similar prolongation and delayed healing of pre-existing ulcers with active chronic inflammation, and that the presence of predisposing factors leading to disruption of gastric mucosal integrity may be required for the H. pylori enhancement of inflammation and tissue damage in the stomach.
  • (11) Furthermore, little DNA relatedness was found between the type strain and a strain of C. natalensis.
  • (12) Displacement of a colinear line over the same range without an offset evoked little, if any, response.
  • (13) Little is so far known of the origin of this syndrome.
  • (14) Known as the Little House in the Garden, this temporary structure lasted over 50 years.
  • (15) Little difference exists between the proportion of programs that offer training in first-trimester techniques and the proportion that train in second-trimester techniques.
  • (16) A study of the time-course of the response during aortic stenosis of 30 min duration showed early release of renin from the innervated kidney at a time (5 min) when little release occurred from the denervated one.
  • (17) She loved us and we loved her.” “We would have loved to have had a little grandchild from her,” she says sadly.
  • (18) Likewise, they had little or no effects on the fluorescence anisotropy of TMA-DPH, which is also thought to be located in the interfacial region of the lipid bilayer, either when the probe was located in the outer layer of the plasma membrane or when the probe was located in the inner membrane compartment.
  • (19) Stimulation with these electrodes were effective for inducing voiding with little residual volume after the recovery of bladder reflexes, 3 weeks after experimental spinal cord injury in the dog.
  • (20) Technical manipulations to improve resolution were time consuming and added little to the accuracy of the test.

Scant


Definition:

  • (superl.) Not full, large, or plentiful; scarcely sufficient; less than is wanted for the purpose; scanty; meager; not enough; as, a scant allowance of provisions or water; a scant pattern of cloth for a garment.
  • (superl.) Sparing; parsimonious; chary.
  • (v. t.) To limit; to straiten; to treat illiberally; to stint; as, to scant one in provisions; to scant ourselves in the use of necessaries.
  • (v. t.) To cut short; to make small, narrow, or scanty; to curtail.
  • (v. i.) To fail, or become less; to scantle; as, the wind scants.
  • (adv.) In a scant manner; with difficulty; scarcely; hardly.
  • (n.) Scantness; scarcity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It is worth noting though that the government is reaping scant reward in the polls even though the economy has expanded by more than 3% over the past year and – according to the IMF – will be the fastest growing of the G7 economies this year.
  • (2) A few days on, we still don't know much , and the evidence against Lewthwaite is scant and contradictory.
  • (3) Despite scant histopathologic changes, motoneuron action potential discharge at this time was significantly altered in latency to onset of spike and rate of rise.
  • (4) Deep veins in the leg have little sympathetic innervation and scant vascular smooth muscle, so their compliance may be determined primarily by the surrounding skeletal muscle.
  • (5) Guidelines to show whether a patient hospitalized because of a urinary tract infection (UTI) has a severe infection, and whether he or she is at high risk for harboring a multiresistant pathogen, are scant.
  • (6) Assay sensitivity is greatly enhanced by pre-amplification of the target nucleic acid segment, enabling extremely scant tissue samples to be analysed and low grade infections to be detected.
  • (7) A review of the scant literature available on this condition reflect how uncommon it is, particularly in fertile subjects.
  • (8) There is, however, scant comparative information about the use of bloodspot eluates for detection of malarial IgG antibodies simultaneously by IFAT and enzyme immunoassay (ELISA).
  • (9) The rule of law collapses into expediency unless judges are independent and self-confident, and the evidence of such judges in Putin's Russia are scant indeed.
  • (10) So perhaps the news that most cancers are the product of bad luck – rather than, say, our diet or lifestyles – is scant reassurance.
  • (11) Using the scant evidence available in the literature, this study conducts a sensitivity analysis to calculate the unrecognized costs of antibiotic use annually in the United States under various possible circumstances.
  • (12) Lipid droplets and elements of smooth endoplasmic reticulum are scant.
  • (13) Third, there were cells whose surfaces exhibited dense populations of cilia and scant numbers of microvilli.
  • (14) The concept of insight into psychosis has received scant attention in the psychiatric literature.
  • (15) The first but very scant cardiomotor terminals appear in this period.
  • (16) In a brief review of the psychiatric literature on the psychological development of the child it is noted that only scant attention has been given to the influences of man's inborn aggressive drives in determining "how we get to be the way we are."
  • (17) Three types of seminoma cells could be distinguished on the basis of the relation between glycogen accumulation and cytoplasmic organelles: 1. tumor cells with plentiful glycogen and scant organelles, 2. tumor cells packed with organelles including RER, mitochondria and Golgi-apparatus but with finely dispersed glycogen, 3. tumor cells with numerous free ribosomes but few organelles and little glycogen.
  • (18) Nushra Mansuri, a professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers : "Was sad that there was scant focus on putting forward proposals to improve the situation for children in care across the board – we are in danger of promoting a two tier system."
  • (19) Intensity patterns were suggestive of hemorrhage, but neither acute nor chronic hemorrhage was identified on routine H and E stains, while iron stain revealed scant hemorrhage in only two of the eight patients in whom these stains were used.
  • (20) Wherever I went, I got nothing.” ‘Everything I have is inside this room’ Suleymanova’s family live in one dim, narrow, room scant with furniture.