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Glite Dictionary
🥄 Not enough 🩲 Short underpants 👙 Very revealing
scanty

scanty

1 7.1
Clothing that shows more of the body than usual
  • adjective
  • /ˈskænti/
  • NSFW
translation icon : revelador
  • Beneath this scanty number was little in the way of underwear.
  • scanty costume
  • scanty dress
  • scanty attire

Examples

  • And then you pit that against the fact that there were, you know, scantily clad women on a weekly basis showing up in Joey's dream sequences.

  • This poor actress is basically scantily clad in almost every scene.

  • I think it's already well established that Halloween has become the day for women to wear scanty attire.

    Blog text (7)

  • She was truly a vision of innocence and beauty in that scanty costume.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Miss Torso is especially oblivious as she exercises in scanty underwear.

    Academic text (1999)

  • There was something about squeezing herself into a scanty little costume the fashion industry deemed "beach attire" that she didn't like.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • They promptly took off their scanty garments to reveal the charms of their perfect bodies.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Maybe purposefully—his mother in a chair, dressed in a scanty nightgown, a motel-room painting behind her.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Two statuesque blondes in scanty Valkyrie (Viking goddess) costumes present the Swede with a gigantic pair of scissors.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • At the beach party, many attendees wore scanty swimsuits that left little to the imagination.

Synonyms

half-naked
vsscanty
  • NSFW
40 3.0

Wearing only a few clothes with much of the body uncovered

is more about deliberate exposure than merely incomplete dressing
scant
vsscanty
30 5.5

A small amount that is barely enough

applies to clothing, focusing on revealing wear not general quantity
skimpy
vsscanty
  • NSFW
11 4.9

Clothes that are very small and show a lot of the body

is revealing too but can be less extremely small in size
brief
vsscanty
11 3.6

Clothing that is very short and covers little of the body

is about overall revealing coverage rather than just short length
scantily clad
vsscanty
  • NSFW
10 6.5

Wearing very few clothes that barely cover the body

is slightly less exposing, focusing on minimal coverage
half-clothed
vsscanty
  • NSFW
1 4.6

Wearing only some clothes and showing parts of the body

implies deliberate exposure rather than simply missing items
seminude
vsscanty
  • NSFW
7.4

Partly clothed so more of the body can be seen than usual

is about thin coverage rather than partial undress alone
underclothed
vsscanty
  • NSFW
7.6

Wearing too little clothing for the weather or situation

focuses on revealing style rather than lack of protection
in dishabille
vsscanty
  • NSFW
9.9

Partly dressed in a loose, untidy way

emphasizes deliberate revealing rather than untidy or casual state

Antonyms

appropriate
962 3.5

Right for a particular situation, person, or purpose

modest
20 3.6

Clothes or behavior that do not show much skin and avoid sexual attention

How Revealing

see-through
14 3.9
revealing
38 4.0
skimpy
  • NSFW
11 4.9
scanty
  • NSFW
1 7.1
modest
20 3.6
conservative
∞ 4.6

Surface Forms

scanty positive
scantier comparative
scantiest superlative

Morphology

scanty = scant (semi-transparent) = scant + y

The 'revealing clothing' sense is an extended, context-specific reading of 'scant' + '-y' (from 'insufficient' to 'barely covering'), so the relation is clear but slightly figurative.

Etymology

Scanty comes from an old Norse word meaning 'short' and is related to the English word scant ('not enough'). That's why scanty clothing feels like it gives only a little cover and shows more of the body.