thinly, adv.
(ˈθɪnlɪ)
[f. thin a. + -ly2.]
In a thin manner.
1. With little thickness or depth; with thin clothing. Also fig.
| 13.. K. Alis. 5906 (Bodl. MS.) Thynnelich hy beþ y-hatered. 1746 Francis tr. Hor., Sat. ii. vi. 94 This Morning Air is very bad For them, who go but thinly clad. 1770 Phil. Trans. LXI. 334, I covered the bottom with it thinly. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi. IV. 570 The scheme of assassination, thus thinly veiled, was communicated to James. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 229 Pictures in oil..may, of course, be thinly painted throughout. |
b. fig. Poorly, meagrely. ? Obs. rare.
| 1537 Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) II. 75 Your neighbours, without whom..all the rest of you would live full thynnely. |
2. With large intervals of space or time; sparsely; not closely or thickly.
| c 1545 in Dugdale Monast. (1821) III. 283, v. acrez di. thinly growyne with olde bechez and some oke. 1667–8 Sir T. Browne Brampton Urns Wks. 1835 III. 500 Great ones were but thinly found. a 1727 Newton Chronol. Amended i. (1728) 178 He found that country..peopled but thinly. 1827 Hone Every-day Bk. II. 106 The market was..thinly attended. |
3. In combination with pa. pples. or adjs. used attributively; now usually hyphened.
| 1757 Dyer Fleece i. Wks. (1761) 60 The thinly-scatter'd meal. 1797 Godwin Enquirer ii. xii. 454 Ten thinly printed pages. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. i. ii. (ed. 2) 26 Thinly-bedded grey rocks. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 70 An open, thinly-timbered, well-grassed country. 1902 Daily Chron. 25 Jan. 3/2 He makes thinly-veiled love to the young lady. |