dearth /ˈdɝθ/
  缺乏,糧食不足,飢謹
  Dearth n.  Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine.
     There came a dearth over all the land of Egypt.   --Acts vii. 11.
     He with her press'd, she faint with dearth.   --Shak.
     Dearth of plot, and narrowness of imagination.   --Dryden.
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  dearth
       n 1: an acute insufficiency [syn: famine, shortage]
       2: an insufficient quantity or number [syn: paucity]
  Dearth
     a scarcity of provisions (1 Kings 17). There were frequent
     dearths in Palestine. In the days of Abram there was a "famine
     in the land" (Gen. 12:10), so also in the days of Jacob (47:4,
     13). We read also of dearths in the time of the judges (Ruth
     1:1), and of the kings (2 Sam. 21:1; 1 Kings 18:2; 2 Kings 4:38;
     8:1).
       In New Testament times there was an extensive famine in
     Palestine (Acts 11:28) in the fourth year of the reign of the
     emperor Claudius (A.D. 44 and 45).