How to use thinly in a sentence
40 example sentences · adverb
Thinly means in a thin, loose, or scattered manner; scantily; not thickly. Example: “The surroundings become bleak in the extreme as the timber line is approached and trees give place to thinly scattered birches that are little more than bushes.”
Examples of thinly by meaning
adverbIn a thin, loose, or scattered manner; scantily; not thickly.
- The surroundings become bleak in the extreme as the timber line is approached and trees give place to thinly scattered birches that are little more than bushes.1957 August, H. A. Vallance, “By Rail to the Norwegian Arctic”, in Railway Magazine, page 574
- SEI grants are poorly targeted and funds are spread too thinly to have a meaningful impact on student outcomes.2017 May 23, Gregory Krieg, Will Mullery, “Trump’s budget by the numbers: What gets cut and why”, in CNN, archived from the original on 16...
adverbBarely; hardly; with little attempt to conceal.
- a thinly-veiled attack on my integrity
- a thinly disguised attempt at sabotage
More sentences with thinly
- Great Wall does sell pork belly but not in thinly sliced form, rather in thick rolls.2012 April, Tyler Cowen, “Revolutionizing the Supermarket Experience”, in An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies, New…. From the entry pork belly
- Pound 5 kg of round ragi (yeast) and 5 pieces of thinly sliced ragi into powder.2005, Malaysia at Random, Didier Millet, page 30. From the entry ragi
- Other late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century novelists utilized thinly disguised Edison-surrogates in a range of future war books.1997, Brooks Landon, Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars, New York, N.Y.: Twayne Publishers, →ISBN, page 44. From the entry future war
- That a great deal of that bicentrism was thinly veiled homophobia didn't bother them in the least.1996 October 7, Michael Thomas, “Re: The Curious Blinkers of Michael Thomas”, in soc.bi (Usenet). From the entry bicentric
- In truth, Yeh Shan's footprints in the Taan district are only thinly scattered.1982 February 1, “TAIPEI, TAIPEI!”, in Taiwan Today, archived from the original on 06 Oct 2022. From the entry taan
- After a time, fully two miles away, he saw sheep grazing on a thinly verdured slide.1918, James Oliver Curwood, The Grizzly King. From the entry verdured
- Take bistek tagalog, a simple preparation of thinly sliced beef marinated in soy sauce and calamansi juice, pan-fried with onions.2017 March 17, Joseph Hernandez, “Just opened: Big flavors from Smalls’ kitchen”, in Chicago Tribune, 169th year, number 76, Chicago…. From the entry bistek tagalog
- Christ's gesturing but rather shapeless hand is painted thinly in brown, wet-in-wet over the more pastose light paint of the architecture.2013 December 12, Ernst van de Wetering, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings V: The Small-Scale History Paintings, Springer Science & Business…. From the entry pastose
- As is well known in Trekdom, the early Klingons were a thinly veiled metaphor for the Soviet Union.2009, Yonassan Gershom, Jewish Themes in Star Trek, page 100. From the entry Trekdom
- A large smile appled his full cheeks as the four sprytes eagerly served themselves from the seeds and thinly sliced fruits.2007, Claudia D. Newcorn, chapter 4, in Crossover (Chronicles of Feyree; scroll 1), [United States]: Theogony Books, published 2021…. From the entry apple
- Long, thinly shredded kadaifi dough comes boxed like filo sheets, but alas, it is not as easy to find.2004, Susanna Hoffman, The Olive and the Caper: Adventures in Greek Cooking, Hachette, →ISBN. From the entry kadaifi
- Seed should be sown thinly and evenly to enable seedlings to be pricked out without disturbing those that have just emerged.2002 July 6, Carol Klein, “Coming up primroses”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 15 Feb 2013. From the entry prick
- The produce is fresh, and the meat looks appealing, especially the thinly sliced rib-eye steak, ready for Korean and Japanese dishes.1986 October 30, Ellen Melinkoff, “EXOTIC: Ethnic Shops for Adventurous Cooks”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif., →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry pine-nut porridge
- The stony outcrops are often covered but thinly with arable soil; winters are bitingly cold, and rainfall scanty and unpredictable.1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 49. From the entry but
- Most kale is therefore sown thinly and left unsingled.1962, James Anderson Scott Watson, James Antony More, James A. McMillan, Agriculture: The Science and Practice of Farming, page 337. From the entry unsingled
- How could he have missed this vital point in my "thinly disguised family and life histories" and "personal vendetta"?1961, Rose Hum Lee, “The Chinese in the United States of America”, in The China Quarterly, volume 6, page 170. From the entry Sze Yap
- “Cast off the topsail sheets, clew garnets, leechlines and buntlines!” The order came thinly through the roar of the wind.1923, Charles Boardman Hawes, The Dark Frigate, Chapter 8. From the entry buntline
- Dionne herself is thinly drawn, a cool girl carrying tarot cards, a Rizla-rolling version of the manic pixie dream girl, tasked with redeeming the hero.2026 April 28, Shahidha Bari, “Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest review – painfully earnest tale of trauma and transition”, in The…. From the entry rizla
- The classic Pittsburgh sandwich, made with thinly sliced pressed ham cooked in barbecue sauce, is available only at a few places with a long memory.2025 November 17, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. From the entry chipped chopped ham
- Speaking this week, Pope Francis sent a thinly veiled warning about the dangers of “pied piper of Hamelin”-style populists and “messianic clowns”.2023 October 22, Tom Phillips, Uki Goñi, “‘Bad and dangerous’: Argentina’s Trump on track to become president”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry messianic
- Whereas industry lead-lag effects were stronger among small, thinly traded stocks with low analyst coverage, geographic lead-lags were unrelated to these proxies for investor scrutiny.2023 January 17, Ana Monteiro, Nuno Silva, Helder Sebastião, “Industry return lead-lag relationships between the US and other major…. From the entry lead-lag
- This show is a thinly veiled advertorial posing as a competition between tradies to be crowned King Gee Jack of All Trades.2007, Catherine Deveny, It's Not My Fault They Print Them, Black Inc., page 175. From the entry tradie
- Conversely, the collaborating chiefs, under the leadership of Kaiser Matanzima, express their uneasy agreement with apartheid by raising the thinly veiled spectre of antiwhiteism.1978, Ian Robertson, Phillip Whitten, Race and Politics in South Africa, page 7. From the entry antiwhiteism
- Possessed of many thinly trafficked lines and dual-purpose assignments for engines, CPR commonsensically employed Pacifics as all-purpose engines, bought 4-6-2's until dieselization.1959, David P. Morgan, editor, Steam's Finest Hour, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 114. From the entry trafficked
- Spread lightly buttered white bread thinly with cream cheese; sprinkle with pineapple and press together, then cut the sandwiches in thin, slender strips.1909, Eva Greene Fuller, The Up-To-Date Sandwich Book: 400 Ways to Make a Sandwich, page 117. From the entry pineapple
- The P39-1 is an anonymous stretch of thinly tarred highway connecting the small towns of Newcastle and Normandien in South Africa, a four-hour drive from Johannesburg.2025 May 22, Pumza Fihlani, “On the South African road incorrectly identified as a 'burial site' by Trump”, in BBC, archived from the…. From the entry Johannesburg
- Shoigu's thinly veiled nuclear threats against NATO are part of the Kremlin's broader reflexive control campaign to influence Western decision-making in Russia's favor and against Western states' own interests.2025 April 24, Christina Harward, Daria Novikov, Anna Harvey, Grace Mappes, George Barros, Nate Trotter, William Runkel, “Russian…. From the entry reflexive
- The menu includes rice and noodle bowls topped with Filipino specialties such as chicken adobo, sisig (minced pork) and bistek (thinly sliced beef braised in soy sauce).2025 February 7, Keith Pandolfi, “Restaurants”, in The Cincinnati Enquirer, volume 184th, number 255, Cincinnati, Oh., →ISSN, →OCLC, page…. From the entry bistek
- Bistek tagalog (thinly sliced beef braised in soy sauce, with pickled vegetables and rice) at Pinoy Bowl, a new food stall at Element Eatery, in Madisonville.2025 February 7, Keith Pandolfi, “Restaurants”, in The Cincinnati Enquirer, volume 184th, number 255, Cincinnati, Oh., →ISSN, →OCLC, page…. From the entry bistek tagalog
- Seventeen-year-old Hunter is a cool hunter employed by an advertising and marketing agency which has a transnational sporting goods corporation, thinly disguised as Nike, as a major client.2011, Kerry Mallan, Clare Bradford, Contemporary Children's Literature and Film, page 66. From the entry cool hunter
- And if there is a serious connection between the fragmented Close close-up portraits that are among the backdrops and the sometimes Chopin-like, thinly pretty ripplings of Mr.2007 October 29, Alastair Macaulay, “An Ephemeral Portrait of an Artist in a Hall of Mirrors”, in New York Times. From the entry rippling
- "Before Sunset" tells what happens when they finally do rendezvous—nine years later—in Paris, at a book-signing for a novel Jesse has written, a thinly disguised account of their liaison.2004 July 2, Michael Wilmington, “A love affair to remember”, in Chicago Tribune. From the entry book-signing
- We cannot afford to downgrade the lifestyles of other lesbians; we cannot afford to portray lesbians thinly as drunken and bothersome separatists who push their views on "work-within-the-movement" dykes".1978 April 29, Cindy Rizzo, “Unity of Divergence”, in Gay Community News, page 4. From the entry downgrade
- Here we find the melancholic Scythrop Glowry, a fictional figure in which the poet Shelley is thinly disguised, torn between two fair maidens, Marionetta and Celinda.1925 February 22, “In Thomas Love Peacock the Plot Does Not Matter […]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times…. From the entry Marionetta
- The currently advocated Family Protection Act, which thinly veneers its discriminatory attitudes about strict social conformity and the disallowance of individual choice with a stated concern for today's social fabric.1981 December 19, Andrew C. Irish, “Support For Gay Nurses”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 22, page 4. From the entry veneer
- The currently advocated Family Protection Act, which thinly veneers its discriminatory attitudes about strict social conformity and the 'disallowance of individual choice with a stated concern for today's social fabric.1981 December 19, Andrew C. Irish, “Support For Gay Nurses”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 22, page 4. From the entry disallowance
Meaning of thinly
- adverb In a thin, loose, or scattered manner; scantily; not thickly.
- adverb Barely; hardly; with little attempt to conceal.
Questions about thinly in a sentence
- How do you use thinly in a sentence?
- Thinly is used as an adverb. For example: “The surroundings become bleak in the extreme as the timber line is approached and trees give place to thinly scattered birches that are little more than bushes.”
- What is a short sentence with thinly?
- “a thinly disguised attempt at sabotage”
- What does thinly mean?
- Thinly means in a thin, loose, or scattered manner; scantily; not thickly.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thinly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use thinly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/thinly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
