18 Metaphors for scarce
and therefore there scarce remains any reason for a further doubt on this head.
Scarce were the piteous accents said,
With weight of others' tears I am o'erborne, That scarce am Atlas to hold up mine own, And all too good for me.
Scarce is my soul delivered from the cloud That darkened its remembrance of the past, When lo!
Scarce was thy flight discovered when there came messengers hot-foot to thy guest, Duke Ivo, having word from Sir Gui of Allerdale that one hath arisen calling himself son of Beltane the Strong that once was Duke of Pentavalon, as ye know.
VII Kindly hearts have I known; Kindly hearts, they are flown; Here and there if but one Linger yet uneffaced, Imbecile tottering elves, Soon to be wreck'd on shelves, These scarce are half themselves, With age and care crazed.
Scarce audible now at all was the sound of his heart: it was like a church bell tolling beyond hills for the death of some one unknown and far away.
So scarce was food at this critical juncture, that the Prince himself, on retiring to Culloden House, could obtain no better refreshment than a little bread and whisky.
America scarce more than a half century ago was for the most part a land of query, rather than of hope.
Scarce was the transaction completed when a stranger jumped in.
Scarce was the popular voice silenced before the suppressed tax was replaced by another; but the good citizen had done his duty.
Scarce was my brother in my circling arms From raging madness suddenly restor'd, Scarce had the ship, long pray'd for, near'd the strand
{178a} Scarce had I gone a furlong, when the Moon, in a soft female voice, cried out to me, "Menippus, will you carry something for me to Jupiter, so may your journey be prosperous?"
He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is wounded in hot blood: who, for the time, scarce feels the hurt; and therefore a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good doth avert the dolours of death; but, above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is Nunc dimittis[106] when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations.
Touching his hand to his fur cap, he informed Samuel and Abe that news was "as scarce as hens' teeth"; then added: "What's doing?" "Oh, nawthin', nawthin'," hastily replied Samuel, who believed that he hated publicity, as he gave Abe's foot a sly kick.
For labour will be nearly as scarce as money; the call for labour in every field cannot fail to surpass in its urgency any call in history.
Bridges are as scarce as roads.
But in Arcadiabecause it is an old-world place where life follows an even, simple course, where money is as scarce as roguery, the old law still holds; a promise once given, is a sacred obligation, and not to be set aside.