scant 3/8 cup sugar
A scant of sugar is a very small amount of sugar.
Barely amounting to as much as indicated - example: a scant two hours; a scant cupful. Having an inadequate or limited supply - example - (usually followed by of ): scant of breath.
One piece of sugar is a grain, which is also the same for salt. E.g., a grain of sugar or a grain of salt.
"Scant" is not a type of flour. "Scant" is a cooking term that means "almost" or "just slightly less than." A recipe would not call for "scant flour" but a "scant cup" or a "scant Tablespoon" of flour, meaning not quite a cup or not quite a Tablespoon.
Ricky lee Jones is a scant singer....
You might put a very tiny amount of butter on your toast, and describe it as toast with scant butter. Perhaps you are afraid of getting fat if you eat too much butter, or perhaps you are just out of butter, who knows.
A scant of oil is...not enough, or barely a sufficient amount.
We were scant of breath after the lengthy climb.
Scant milk means "milk just barely".
Onions were scant at the grocer's, again.
Her boss had scant regard for the employees opinions. Another great example sentence would be, she had scant regard for who she hurt with her lies.
The marooned passengers were concerned by the scant food supplies on the island. The professor paid scant notice to the complaints about his teaching.