"thin on the ground" meaning in English

See thin on the ground in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Forms: thinner on the ground [comparative], thinnest on the ground [superlative]
Head templates: {{en-adj|+first}} thin on the ground (comparative thinner on the ground, superlative thinnest on the ground)
  1. (of something useful or desirable) Scarce; difficult to find.
    Sense id: en-thin_on_the_ground-en-adj-aJdW5mVl Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Synonyms: few and far between, deficient, in short supply, wanting, lacking, uncommon, ;, rare, dearthy, few and far between [idiomatic], geason [dialectal, rare], infrequent, in short supply, rare, raresome, scant, scantling, scarce, selcouth, seld [archaic], seldom [archaic], selly [UK, dialectal], superrare, uncommon, unfrequent
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "thinner on the ground",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thinnest on the ground",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "+first"
      },
      "expansion": "thin on the ground (comparative thinner on the ground, superlative thinnest on the ground)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "thick on the ground"
        },
        {
          "word": "common"
        },
        {
          "word": "widespread"
        },
        {
          "word": "abundant"
        },
        {
          "word": ";"
        },
        {
          "word": "ubiquitous"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              35,
              53
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2020 November 18, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, page 71:",
          "text": "She explains: \"Customers are sadly thin on the ground, but my community and charity work are very much still part of me. [...].\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Scarce; difficult to find."
      ],
      "id": "en-thin_on_the_ground-en-adj-aJdW5mVl",
      "links": [
        [
          "Scarce",
          "scarce"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(of something useful or desirable) Scarce; difficult to find."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of something useful or desirable"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "few and far between"
        },
        {
          "word": "deficient"
        },
        {
          "word": "in short supply"
        },
        {
          "word": "wanting"
        },
        {
          "word": "lacking"
        },
        {
          "word": "uncommon"
        },
        {
          "word": ";"
        },
        {
          "word": "rare"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "dearthy"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "tags": [
            "idiomatic"
          ],
          "word": "few and far between"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "tags": [
            "dialectal",
            "rare"
          ],
          "word": "geason"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "infrequent"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "in short supply"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "rare"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "raresome"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "scant"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "scantling"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "scarce"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "selcouth"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "tags": [
            "archaic"
          ],
          "word": "seld"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "tags": [
            "archaic"
          ],
          "word": "seldom"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "tags": [
            "UK",
            "dialectal"
          ],
          "word": "selly"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "superrare"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "uncommon"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "unfrequent"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "thin on the ground"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "thinner on the ground",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thinnest on the ground",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "+first"
      },
      "expansion": "thin on the ground (comparative thinner on the ground, superlative thinnest on the ground)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "antonyms": [
        {
          "word": "thick on the ground"
        },
        {
          "word": "common"
        },
        {
          "word": "widespread"
        },
        {
          "word": "abundant"
        },
        {
          "word": ";"
        },
        {
          "word": "ubiquitous"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              35,
              53
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2020 November 18, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, page 71:",
          "text": "She explains: \"Customers are sadly thin on the ground, but my community and charity work are very much still part of me. [...].\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Scarce; difficult to find."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Scarce",
          "scarce"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(of something useful or desirable) Scarce; difficult to find."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of something useful or desirable"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "few and far between"
        },
        {
          "word": "deficient"
        },
        {
          "word": "in short supply"
        },
        {
          "word": "wanting"
        },
        {
          "word": "lacking"
        },
        {
          "word": "uncommon"
        },
        {
          "word": ";"
        },
        {
          "word": "rare"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "dearthy"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "tags": [
            "idiomatic"
          ],
          "word": "few and far between"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "tags": [
            "dialectal",
            "rare"
          ],
          "word": "geason"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "infrequent"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "in short supply"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "rare"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "raresome"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "scant"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "scantling"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "scarce"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "selcouth"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "tags": [
            "archaic"
          ],
          "word": "seld"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "tags": [
            "archaic"
          ],
          "word": "seldom"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "tags": [
            "UK",
            "dialectal"
          ],
          "word": "selly"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "superrare"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "uncommon"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:rare",
          "word": "unfrequent"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "thin on the ground"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (96027d6 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.