Roget's Thesaurus

#640. Insufficiency

Nouns

insufficiency; inadequacy, inadequateness; incompetence etc. (impotence) 158; deficiency etc. (incompleteness) 53; imperfection etc. 651; shortcoming etc. 304; paucity; stint; scantiness etc. (smallness) 32; none to spare, bare subsistence. scarcity, dearth; want, need, lack, poverty, exigency; inanition, starvation, famine, drought. dole, mite, pittance; short allowance, short commons; half rations; banyan day. emptiness, poorness etc. adj.; depletion, vacancy, flaccidity; ebb tide; low water; a beggarly account of empty boxes [Romeo and Juliet]; indigence etc. 804; insolvency etc. (nonpayment) 808.

Verbs

be insufficient etc. adj.; not suffice etc. 639; come short of etc. 304; run dry. want, lack, need, require; caret; be in want etc. (poor) 804, live from hand to mouth. render insufficient etc. Adj.; drain of resources, impoverish etc. (waste) 638; stint etc. (begrudge) 819; put on short allowance. do insufficiently etc. adv.; scotch the snake.

Adjectives

insufficient, inadequate; too little etc. 32; not enough etc. 639; unequal to; incompetent etc. (impotent) 158; weighed in the balance and found wanting; perfunctory etc. (neglect) 460; deficient etc. (incomplete) 53; wanting, etc. v.; imperfect etc. 651; ill-furnished, ill-provided, ill-stored, ill-off. slack, at a low ebb; empty, vacant, bare; short of, out of, destitute of, devoid of, bereft of etc. 789; denuded of; dry, drained. unprovided, unsupplied, unfurnished; unreplenished, unfed; unstored, untreasured; empty-handed. meager, poor, thin, scrimp, sparing, spare, stinted; starved, starving; halfstarved, famine-stricken, famished; jejune. scant etc. (small) 32; scarce; not to be had, not to be had for love or money, not to be had at any price; scurvy; stingy etc. 819; at the end of one's tether; without resources etc. 632; in want etc. (poor) 804; in debt etc. 806.

Adverbs

insufficiently etc. adj.; in default of, for want of; failing.

Phrases

semper avarus eget [Lat.] [Horace].