sparsely

From sparse + -ly.

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sparsely (comparative more sparsely, superlative most sparsely)

1. In a scattered or sparse manner; widely apart; thinly.

   Synonym: scantily

   a sparsely populated region

   • 1951 October, “Notes and News: The Harmonium at Troutbeck”, in Railway Magazine, page 709:

     Troutbeck is a tiny village midway between Penrith and Keswick in a very sparsely populated part of Cumberland, and it used to be said by facetious travellers that the reason why it ever had a station at all was to give the engine a rest after it had struggled up the long and trying incline from Threlkeld.

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “sparsely”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “sparsely”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Parsleys, parsleys