scant vs third string

scant

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

  • Sparing; parsimonious; chary. 

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

  • To limit in amount or share; to stint. 

det
  • Very little, very few. 

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. 

third string

adj
  • Of a decidedly lower quality or condition. 

noun
  • A unit of players that plays behind the first and second strings; a junior varsity team. 

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