measly vs scant

measly

adj
  • Small (especially contemptibly small) in amount. 

  • Particularly of pigs or pork: infected with larval tapeworms or trichinae (parasitic roundworms). 

  • Of a person: infected with measles. 

scant

adj
  • Not full, large, or plentiful; scarcely sufficient; scanty; meager. 

  • Sparing; parsimonious; chary. 

det
  • Very little, very few. 

verb
  • To fail, or become less; to scantle. 

  • To limit in amount or share; to stint. 

noun
  • A sheet of stone. 

  • Scarcity; lack. 

  • A small piece or quantity. 

  • A slightly thinner measurement of a standard wood size. 

  • A block of stone sawn on two sides down to the bed level. 

How often have the words measly and scant occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )