scant vs small

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. 

small

adj
  • Not large or big; insignificant; few in number. 

  • Young, as a child. 

  • Humiliated or insignificant. 

  • Minuscule or lowercase, referring to written or printed letters. 

  • That is small (the manufactured size). 

  • Evincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; paltry; mean. 

  • Not prolonged in duration; not extended in time; short. 

  • Synonym of little (“of an industry or institution(s) therein: operating on a small scale, unlike larger counterparts”) 

noun
  • Any part of something that is smaller or slimmer than the rest, now usually with anatomical reference to the back. 

  • One who fits an item of that size. 

  • One of several common sizes to which an item may be manufactured. 

  • An item labelled or denoted as being that size. 

adv
  • In a small fashion 

  • In or into small pieces. 

verb
  • To become small; to dwindle. 

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