† ˈscarcehead Obs. rare.
[f. scarce a. + -head.]
Stinginess, niggardliness.
Cf. dial. scarceheed ‘scarcity, want’ (Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. 1886).
| 1420–2 Lydg. Thebes iii. in Chaucer's Wks. (1561) 369/1 But in his Courte let him first deuise To exile Scarcehed and Couetise. 1566 Drant Horace, Sat. i. i. A iiij, A niggerde cloune, At whose scarceheade and couetyce the worlde did outas make. |