adverb In a thin, loose, or scattered manner; scantily; not thickly. adverb in a small quantity or extent; "spread the margarine thinly over the meat"; "apply paint lightly" adverb in a widely distributed manner; "thinly overgrown mountainside" adverb without force or sincere effort; ...
It had been determined between them that the Old World, with its crowds and cities, offered them a more eligible shelter and concealment than the wilds of New England or all America, with its alternatives of an Indian wigwam, or the few settlements of Europeans scattered thinly along the sea...