Entry 1 sense Webster, 1913

Dearth

/dûrth/ · IPA /dɝθ/

01 n. Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine.

1.
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.