Short of spares (6)

I believe the answer is:

sparse

'short' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'of spares' is the wordplay.
'of' is an anagram indicator (the answer comes from or 'of' the letters).
'spares' is an anagram of 'SPARSE'.

(Other definitions for sparse that I've seen before include "Thinly populated" , "Thin on the ground, scarce" , "In short supply" , "Thinly spread" , "not packed together" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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