Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Sparingly; scantily; thinly; leanly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb In a spare manner; sparingly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a spare manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in a spare manner

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

spare +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • In this sparely illustrated story, father and daughter live alone "on top of a steep, craggy mountain."

    Pipers Piping, Drummers Drumming Meghan Cox Gurdon 2011

  • "The HORARS of War," by Gene Wolfe: This is not my favorite Gene Wolfe story, but it is the most memorable one for me because it deals with so many issues deftly and sparely, with no preaching and with a cleanly-written story that moves quickly and keeps you wondering what Wolfe is up to as the tale unfolds.

    MIND MELD: Memorable Short Stories to Add to Your Reading List (Part 2 of 2) 2009

  • Unmarried, the pracharaks live sparely, inspiring hundreds of workers while trying to remain faceless, in an effort to eliminate their own egos.

    India’s New Face 2009

  • My sister, Rose, and I share this tiny back room above the kitchen, sparely furnished with only our narrow beds, a wobbly three-legged night table, and this damp sea chest pushed up to the draughty window.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • Unmarried, the pracharaks live sparely, inspiring hundreds of workers while trying to remain faceless, in an effort to eliminate their own egos.

    India’s New Face 2009

  • Western Sahara -- one of the word's most sparely populated hinterlands -- is also some of its most hotly-contested turf, with no less than three countries implicated in local demands for independence from neighboring Morocco.

    Western Sahara's Uneasy Peace Untenable, UN Envoy Says 2010

  • I fully enjoyed and admire this sparely written, unsparing portrait of a deeply troubled American family.

    Night Navigation by Ginnah Howard: Book summary 2010

  • My sister, Rose, and I share this tiny back room above the kitchen, sparely furnished with only our narrow beds, a wobbly three-legged night table, and this damp sea chest pushed up to the draughty window.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • They described the region as a "sparely populated rural area."

    AP: Populations around U.S. nuclear plants soar 2011

  • As to the treaty terms as we are sparely informed of them, it appears that the U.S. would reduce its forces by one-third and Russia would reduce its forces by a similar amount.

    Optimism Watch: Instapundit/Israel/Obama edition. | RedState 2010

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