Definitions of scarce:

• adjective:   not enough; hard to find

  Example: "Meat was scarce during the war"

• adjective:   deficient in quantity or number compared with the demand

  Example: "Fresh vegetables were scarce during the drought"

• adverb:   by a small margin

  Example: "Had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open"

• name:  A surname (very rare: popularity rank in the U.S.: #60527)