From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthinlythin‧ly /ˈθɪnli/ ●●○ adverb 1 THIN OBJECT OR MATERIALin a way that has a very small distance between two sides or two flat surfaces OPP thickly thinly sliced bread2 FEW/NOT MANYscattered or spread over a large area, with a lot of space in between Sow the radish seeds thinly. The mountain regions are more thinly populated than the lowlands.3 → thinly disguised/veiled
Examples from the Corpus
thinly• The rest were spread rather thinly across the categories of employment listed in Table 4.11.• She smiled thinly and ran her index finger over the Biro scribble.• Quickly pour into the 2 buttered pans and spread thinly over entire surface of each.• Peel maincrop potatoes thinly, preferably using a potato peeler.• thinly sliced carrots• Pair the rounds with steamed red cabbage and thinly sliced zucchini.• thinly traded stocks• Mayli just smiled thinly, weakly.• Peel the ginger, slice thinly with the grain, and cut the slices lengthwise into thin shreds.thinly populated• Both are thinly populated areas far from departure and arrival points presently used by local commuters.• Caledor Caledor is a thinly populated, mountainous realm to the west of Eataine.• Formerly the Amazon region was more thinly populated than the Sahara, containing perhaps some 50000 people, and importing food.• Surface waters in contact with melting ice tend to be very thinly populated with zooplankton. 