adv. [f. SPARSE a. + -LY2.]
1. In a sparse manner; not closely or densely; thinly.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 191. It grows sparsely in the N. England and middle States.
1800. Monthly Mag., IX. 237. The paper is sparsely written.
1851. Nichol, Archit. Heav., 35. Stars strewn comparatively sparsely through the neighbouring spaces.
1867. Baker, Nile Trib., xix. (1872), 327. A vast plain sparsely covered with small trees.
b. Thinly with respect to inhabitants.
1857. Olmsted, Journ. Texas, 365. The country is sparsely settled, containing less than one inhabitant to the square mile.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, II. i. The hill was sparsely inhabited, and covered chiefly by gardens.
1879. H. George, Progr. & Pov., II. ii. (1881), 98. The earth as a whole is yet most sparsely populated.
2. At rare or infrequent intervals of time. rare–1.
1867. Mrs. Carlyle, in C. Reminis. (1881), II. 153. In summer we had sparsely visitors, now and then her mother, or my own.
3. Comb. with ppl. adjs. (usually hyphened), as sparsely-bushed, -foliaged, -populated, etc.
Freq. in recent use.
1880. T. A. Spalding, Eliz. Demonol., 129. The sparsely populated country sides.
1882. E. O’Donovan, Merv Oasis, I. 330. Sparsely-sprinkled gardens … tremble in the mirage.
1895. J. G. Millais, Breath fr. Veldt (1899), 300. We all knew the country—a great sparsely-bushed plain.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 587. A clump of gnarled sparsely-foliaged trees.
