as in poorly
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Recent Examples of sparingly
The 24-year-old was chosen with the 37th overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, shortly after playing sparingly during UConn’s national title run.
—
Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 3 May 2026
Gay impressed during training camp, but played sparingly last season for some unknown reason.
—Omar Kelly
may 1, Miami Herald, 1 May 2026
Florida coach Todd Golden gave Rioux the option of playing sparingly as a true freshman or taking a redshirt season and working on his game.
—ABC News, 30 Apr. 2026
Water only if needed, and do so sparingly.
—Lee Wallender, The Spruce, 30 Apr. 2026
Palestinians also need Israeli permission to build and expand water infrastructure, which is granted sparingly, experts say.
—Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 28 Apr. 2026
In part, the decision not to use bylines or to use them sparingly was made by publishers who believed the newspaper, not the individual reporter, was responsible for each story.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Apr. 2026
Water sparingly—approximately once every 10 to 12 days—ensuring the soil dries out completely between cycles.
—Nolan Lewis, Architectural Digest, 27 Apr. 2026
And Thomas could be a kickoff returner who plays sparingly as a gadget on offense.
—Kevin Fishbain, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2026
Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 3 May 2026
Gay impressed during training camp, but played sparingly last season for some unknown reason.
—Omar Kelly
may 1, Miami Herald, 1 May 2026
Florida coach Todd Golden gave Rioux the option of playing sparingly as a true freshman or taking a redshirt season and working on his game.
—ABC News, 30 Apr. 2026
Water only if needed, and do so sparingly.
—Lee Wallender, The Spruce, 30 Apr. 2026
Palestinians also need Israeli permission to build and expand water infrastructure, which is granted sparingly, experts say.
—Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 28 Apr. 2026
In part, the decision not to use bylines or to use them sparingly was made by publishers who believed the newspaper, not the individual reporter, was responsible for each story.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Apr. 2026
Water sparingly—approximately once every 10 to 12 days—ensuring the soil dries out completely between cycles.
—Nolan Lewis, Architectural Digest, 27 Apr. 2026
And Thomas could be a kickoff returner who plays sparingly as a gadget on offense.
—Kevin Fishbain, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sparingly
Adverb
-
Pratt framed both Bass and Raman as representatives of a failing City Hall leadership, arguing Los Angeles had become increasingly unsafe, unaffordable and poorly managed under current leadership.—
Teresa Liu,
Daily News,
7 May 2026
-
Walgreens was performing poorly financially and then-CEO Tim Wentworth decided the giant pharmacy chain needed to close many hundreds — maybe more than 1,000 — of its money-losing stores around the country.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
6 May 2026
Adverb
-
Builders can’t build cheaply enough to generate the loan sizes that fall through the cracks of the mortgage system.—
Jake Angelo,
Fortune,
23 Apr. 2026
-
But the fact that countries hold their wealth in United States dollars, which allows the United States government to borrow more cheaply, that’s a product of the system.—
David Frum,
The Atlantic,
22 Apr. 2026
Adverb
-
The family lived frugally, Ferguson said, since Good’s partner sold a company and didn’t work as Good attended graduate school online.—
PJ Green,
Kansas City Star,
8 Jan. 2026
-
Perdue has lived a double life—having access to immense privilege and money from two business empires, while holding down a regular job and living frugally.—
Preston Fore,
Fortune,
24 Oct. 2025
Adverb
-
The city needs to work on creating more economically balanced communities by ensuring a variety of housing types affordable to people of all income levels is provided throughout the city.—
David Garrick,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 May 2026
-
That could be influential because of how closely tied Iran is to China economically and politically.—
Stan Choe,
Los Angeles Times,
6 May 2026
Adverb
-
To this new arena of few big, let alone original, hits; to a place where expensive corporatized storytelling could hold no candle to the quick-turn, inexpensively made short videos young people watched or the quick-turn, inexpensively made long podcasts older people listened to.—
Steven Zeitchik,
HollywoodReporter,
12 Dec. 2025
-
Second, California doesn’t build anything inexpensively and efficiently.—
Steven Greenhut,
Oc Register,
24 Oct. 2025
Adverb
-
Maps show the location of the crash is sparely populated and the two-lane road has no street lighting.—
Mark Price,
Miami Herald,
12 Aug. 2025
Adverb
-
When opportunities arise, whether lowly paid or not, we’re often left with no other choice than to take the role that pays meagerly.—
Robyn Mowatt,
Essence,
1 Sep. 2025
-
Fraser hopes against hope that this whole debacle will increase their tip, however meagerly.—
Rafaela Bassili,
Vulture,
5 Aug. 2025
Adverb
-
That’s frustrating considering the format has always been thriftily priced.—
Anthony D'Alessandro,
Deadline,
14 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Sparingly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sparingly. Accessed 9 May. 2026.
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