pitiful vs scant

pitiful

adj
  • Of an amount or number: very small. 

  • So appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity. 

adv
  • In a pitiful manner; pitifully; piteously; pathetically. 

scant

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

  • Sparing; parsimonious; chary. 

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. 

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

  • To limit in amount or share; to stint. 

det
  • Very little, very few. 

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