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sparse
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  • Less than a month later he was on the road again, tramping alone through the canyon lands of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, then a region nearly as sparsely populated and wrapped in mystique as Alaska is today.†   (source)
  • There were tufts of sparse grass, a few bushes and rocks, and nearby he could see an area of thicker vegetation: broad, low trees outlined against the sky.†   (source)
  • Wu had to admit that the bungalow Hammond had built for himself was elegant, with sparse, almost Japanese lines.†   (source)
  • "Get up here, Man," Stacey ordered, but Little Man only gazed at the ragged red bank sparsely covered with scraggly brown briars and kept on walking.†   (source)
  • Then I'll welcome you, I'll hold out my arms to you, I'll kiss you on the cheek, sparsely, because it would be unseemly to let myself go.†   (source)
  • When they'd left Henry's little valley, the sun was shining between sparse white clouds, but as they approached Lake Superior the clouds merged into the solid blue mass of a storm front.†   (source)
  • The sight before him was very common: The construction work under way to widen the canal caused the tropical forest on both slopes to be quite sparse, revealing large patches of yellow earth.†   (source)
  • By some extraordinary conspiracy of fate, at the very instant Nina made this pronouncement, the accordion player concluded an old favorite and the sparsely populated room broke into applause.†   (source)
  • Tired of Papaw's constant presence and Mamaw's "interference," Mom and Bob decided to move to Preble County, a sparsely populated part of Ohio farm country approximately thirty-five miles from Middletown.†   (source)
  • In silence they began their backbreaking, dangerous work, taking special care to avoid the large stones that regularly loosened themselves from the soil— a difficult task in the sparse light from their lamps.†   (source)
  • I had assumed that the Pacific, but for passing schools of fish, was a sparsely inhabited waste of water.†   (source)
  • The second one stands, holds out his bottle, and chooses the sparse traffic of the right-hand lane.†   (source)
  • His flat, normally sparsely furnished and immaculate, was strung with training schedules and dietary sheets.†   (source)
  • Now, as they sped away from the embassy, serpentining through sparse traffic on Champs-Elysées, Langdon felt his options deteriorating.†   (source)
  • He was approaching the sparse, skeletal trees in front of the denser woods when he was startled by a blur of movement at his feet, followed by a hurried set of clacking sounds.†   (source)
  • They wore gold rings in their leather ears and in the wind their sparse and ratty hair twisted about on their skulls.†   (source)
  • Something about that voice made the sparse hairs on the back of Frank's neck stand up.†   (source)
  • He could see just the roof of Jen's house beyond the sparse line of trees.†   (source)
  • "He has the sweetest of smiles," and with one insubstantial hand she stroked the child's sparse blond hair.†   (source)
  • Several weeks earlier, Edwin, the Tlingit elder from Drake, had built a sparse one-room wood shelter for Cole on the island.†   (source)
  • He was an old man in suspenders, one useless eye wandering loose in its socket, poorly shaven wattles of skin at his throat—raw, chafed, and pinkish folds with sparse silver bristles poking out of them.†   (source)
  • Under all this a sparse quantity of grayish hair was tied in a small but tidy knot on top of her head.†   (source)
  • She was standing well down the leftfield foul line, past third base, looking into the sparse stands, the almost-empty bleacher seats—trying to see if there was anyone she knew there, I guess.†   (source)
  • Or we went to visit with other Punjabi families in sparsely furnished, crowded apartments in the same building and watched their videos.†   (source)
  • Flowers, weeds, junk, pet houses, tree houses, vegetable gardens, rubber tires, grass ranging from desert-sparse to shaggy to trim as a marine's haircut — the backyards were as different, as individual as faces.†   (source)
  • The trees were sparser up here, and the wind blew more vigorously, sharp gusts that tugged at her clothing and pushed her hair into her eyes.†   (source)
  • The short trees and sparse undergrowth which surrounded the men's village began to give way to giant trees and climbers which perhaps had stood from the beginning of things, untouched by the axe and the bush-fire.†   (source)
  • To me, though, the sparseness of the room made the whole thing depressing.†   (source)
  • Back from it sprouted palm trees, sparsely at first, and then more densely as the verdant forest took over and shrouded the island in a canopy of green that continued up the hills and into the mountains.†   (source)
  • The back exits need to be as sparsely guarded as possible.†   (source)
  • She would soothe the household, which seemed to her, from the sickly dimness of the bedroom, like a troubled and sparsely populated continent from whose forested vastness competing elements made claims and counterclaims upon her restless attention.†   (source)
  • Will said with a laugh as the three friends headed tothe barely paved parking lot of the Dayton Street Projects, which was filled with weeds, sparse patches of grass, broken glass, and all kinds of debris.†   (source)
  • The little but with its sparsely thatched roof sagged at one corner.†   (source)
  • "Dr. Singh is a professor?" my father asked, though he knew this already, knew more than he was comfortable with about this beautiful woman and her sparsely furnished home.†   (source)
  • As a wave of musty air blew up to meet them, the android turned on her floodlight, dispersing the shadows from the sparse halogens.†   (source)
  • It had a note from him pinned to part of its sparse instrument panel.†   (source)
  • The moon shone through the window, giving the room sparse light and making me feel a little nervous.†   (source)
  • There was always the sense that it was temporary; she didn't keep many clothes there and lived mostly out of a suitcase on a luggage rack at the foot of her bed; and for reasons inexplicable I liked the empty, restful anonymity of the flat, which was cheerfully but sparsely decorated with abstract-patterned rugs and modern furnishings from an affordable design store.†   (source)
  • The buildings have fallen away behind me, giving way to ramshackle sheds, sparsely situated on either side of the cracked and run-down road.†   (source)
  • Our sparse neighborhood was being canvassed.†   (source)
  • Talk was sparse, and depression hung over the house.†   (source)
  • It was a large room, only sparsely furnished: a long table with eight chairs, a cupboard, and a heavy sideboard.†   (source)
  • I stumbled upon it while wandering, lost, along the banks of the Hoolie River in the "sparsely populated section of town where the Old City decays into Jacktown amid a jumble of tall warehouses which prevent even a glimpse of the ruined towers of the cathedral until one turns a corner onto a narrow cul-de-sac and there is the shell of the cathedral; its chapter house has half fallen away into the river, its facade is pocked with remnants of the mournful, apocalyptic statuary of the post-Hegira expansionist period.†   (source)
  • Here, the tables and benches were more widely spaced and sparsely populated.†   (source)
  • After seeing my reflection I decided to use some of my sparse water supply to have a wash, and at the same time I would light a fire in one of the few intact kitchen stoves to cook the remains of my oatmeal.†   (source)
  • The hardest thing to explain was why it was so beautiful to me — to justify a beauty that didn't depend on the sparse, spiny vegetation that often looked half dead, a beauty that had more to do with the exposed shape of the land, with the shallow bowls of valleys between the craggy hills, and the way they held on to the sun.†   (source)
  • His gray hair looks more sparse than the last time Gogol remembers, his potbelly more pronounced.†   (source)
  • The sparser-than-usual scatter of jewelry and memorial pins might tell me, if I stared closely enough to read names.†   (source)
  • They and Myrta settled into a life marked by increasingly sparse visits from Dr. Holmes, but when he did appear, he brought warmth and gifts and entombed little Lucy in his arms.†   (source)
  • Willem's sparsely furnished room was on the fourth floor of a private home.†   (source)
  • "This is sparse country," she said.†   (source)
  • As they hurried home, Saeed and Nadia looked at the night sky, at the forcefulness of the stars and the moon's pockmarked brightness in the absence of electric lighting and in the reduced pollution from fuel-starved and hence sparse traffic, and wondered where the door to which they had purchased access might take them, someplace in the mountains or on the plains or by the seaside, and they saw an emaciated man lying on the street who had recently expired, either from hunger or illness, for he did not appear wounded, and in their apartment they told Saeed's father th†   (source)
  • Mother didn't want to plead for any more credit at the grocery store, so the cupboards held a sparse supply of staples.†   (source)
  • The grass and scrub brush got sparser until we were galloping (do boars gallop?) across the desert.†   (source)
  • We kept on like this for hours, me reading and taking notes, Deborah staring at Elsie's picture in long silences broken only by her sparse commentary: "My sister look scared."†   (source)
  • We had just heard the story recounted so many times over the years that it was easy to take the details and fold them into our own sparse memories, embellishing here or there to fill in the blanks.†   (source)
  • There is a constant undulation of the ground that makes the shattered glass flash and twinkle; this is caused by vast, sparse migrations of rats.†   (source)
  • He chewed each mouthful of his sparse nourishment fifty times.†   (source)
  • Trees, the sniper's nearest and dearest friends, were damn sparse.†   (source)
  • He stole a glance at the lawyer: an angular face with sparse, bristly white hair and thick glasses perched on an impressive nose.†   (source)
  • I figured Gurney to be sparse with his praise.†   (source)
  • Wind rustles through the tall sparse trees that line the road.†   (source)
  • The Dugout was sparsely furnished—booth benches with backs on them along the walls, and support pilings scattered throughout the room that cut into the dancing space.†   (source)
  • Caroline had pressed the phone to her ear, something sinking deeply and darkly through her at this news, studying the sparse remaining leaves of the sycamore trees as they fluttered in the cold morning light.†   (source)
  • There is an expressway beyond the backyard now, well below us, and at night as we settle into our brass bed the sparse traffic washes past, a remote and steady murmur around our sleep, as of dead souls babbling at the edge of a dream.†   (source)
  • I push him down the hallway and through one of the doors to a sparsely furnished room near the dormitory.†   (source)
  • The sparse furniture looked as if it had been picked up in a yard sale.†   (source)
  • The sun struck, on steel, on bronze, on stone, on glass, on the gray water far beneath them, on the turret tops and the flashing windshields of crawling cars, on the incredible highways, stretching and snarling and turning for mile upon mile upon mile, on the houses, square and high, low and gabled, and on their howling antennae, on the sparse, weak trees, and on those towers, in the distance, of the city of New York.†   (source)
  • The monkey's skin was rashy and covered with red blotches, visible through his sparse hair.†   (source)
  • The climate is more pleasant here than in the lowlands, and the mud-walled huts are sparse.†   (source)
  • Like everything else here, it's pink and gold and sparsely furnished.†   (source)
  • He hated it, as he hated the Texas plains, the Nevada desert; spaces horizontal and sparsely inhabited had always induced in him a depression accompanied by agoraphobic sensations.†   (source)
  • Tonight's meeting is a sparsely attended affair.†   (source)
  • The grass was sparse, and every hoof sent up its little spurt of dust.†   (source)
  • She scrutinized the sparse growth, the leafless bushes about the spot, looking for signs of a struggle, and the question in her heart was, "My God, was he alive or dead?"†   (source)
  • It's freezing down here, but it's also clean and sparse and white.†   (source)
  • If he prophesied that the cotton in today's field was going to be sparse and stick to the bolls like glue, every listener would grunt a hearty agreement.†   (source)
  • With them this time was the twenty-four-year-old fighter-pilot captain with the sparse golden mustache who had been shot into the Adriatic Sea in midwinter and not even caught cold.†   (source)
  • We walked through bare halls, and peered into sparsely furnished rooms, as unwashed and unsupervised children ran amok.†   (source)
  • I turn and vomit into a sparse bush.†   (source)
  • The smears led to car tracks that were clearly delineated in the sparsely traveled soil.†   (source)
  • Portia had spent hours sifting through the sparse history of their ancestry, with little to show for her efforts.†   (source)
  • I could see the grey hairs in his sparse beard.†   (source)
  • Slowly, however, the silhouette straightened and began to thread its way up through the sparse wood.†   (source)
  • He knows that his brother's foray into civil rights will fail if the rally at the Lincoln Memorial turns hostile or is sparsely attended.†   (source)
  • The limbs are so sparse and thin here that all anyone would have to do is look up to see me.†   (source)
  • Athelas they named it, and it grows now sparsely and only near places where they dwelt or camped of old; and it is not known in the North, except to some of those who wander in the Wild.†   (source)
  • Feather, a short squat man with sparse but curly hair, looked up at Guitar, then at Milkman, and frowned.†   (source)
  • The furnishings were sparse; there were no carpets.†   (source)
  • The flowers were sparser.†   (source)
  • They had stopped near a spring, in a clearing that was sparsely wooded with thin, scraggly trees, at the cleft of the canyon.†   (source)
  • What Thomas called furniture was sparse among the Desert Dwellers-they lacked the wood-but their ingenuity was evident.†   (source)
  • He clutched at the sparse grass of the orchard, then rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself to his knees, trying not to be sick.†   (source)
  • Further up there was witchgrass, sparse, then green and rank...then the first sweet smell of real grass, mixed with timothy and shaded by the first of the dwarfed firs.†   (source)
  • The place was sparsely but comfortably furnished.†   (source)
  • Green became sparser as they climbed.†   (source)
  • "Sometimes simplicity backed by authority is best in deception," observed Krupkin as the Citroën was maneuvered between the sparse, erratic traffic across the wide avenue to the entrance of the white-stone apartment complex.†   (source)
  • The sparse light that streamed through the small windows was filled with dust which danced in seemingly random movements.†   (source)
  • Its population was sparse until augmented through the relocation subplan of the Great New York Urban Renewal Program, A.D. twenty-twenty-five through twenty-thirty.†   (source)
  • At his sparsely attended funeral, Felicia howls like a lonely she-wolf.†   (source)
  • He was a composer who wrote old-fashioned scores for motion pictures, and modern symphonies for sparse audiences.†   (source)
  • She lingered for a moment in the piteously small crowd that had gathered and then stepped into the sparsely decorated palanquin.†   (source)
  • But the valley had only sparse patches of dirt sprinkled in among broken boulders and walls of solid stone.†   (source)
  • Those celebrations were so sparse, the future so uncertain, that the ground seemed to be shifting beneath us.†   (source)
  • The light from his desk lamp makes the black bristles of his hair look even more sparse, like a landscape of trees in winter.†   (source)
  • It was clean and sparsely furnished, and computer files, which he went over in Bolling's presence, yielded no clues.†   (source)
  • His sparse gray hair lay uncombed on his head.†   (source)
  • The bathroom was a sparse empty stone room with open drains in the floor and a tap to one side.†   (source)
  • The burro chewed the dry tufts of grass as close to the gray shale as it could and strained against the reins to reach another sparse clump of grass.†   (source)
  • But the choices were pretty sparse on the ground, period.†   (source)
  • It being just after ten, the immense mall parking lot is practically deserted, save the hulking, older-model and econobox cars of the store employees, which sparsely line the far periphery in a gesture to the large weekend crowds that have long gone elsewhere.†   (source)
  • The place was sparsely furnished with bare walls and empty coffee and side tables.†   (source)
  • It was sparsely furnished, more office than home, and upon its whitewashed walls hung several outsize black-and-white photographs of Palestinian suffering—the long dusty walk into exile, the wretched camps, the weathered faces of the old ones dreaming of paradise lost.†   (source)
  • Not like the French city of Detroit, people all packed in together, nor like the sparse settlements of the Wobbish country, with each farm carved out like a gouge in the greenwood forest.†   (source)
  • That course was a square of improved road that went through sparsely populated farmland, with miles of golden pastures.†   (source)
  • The sparsely furnished cell contains a wooden crate upon which sits a hot plate with a kettle, and a portable tape recorder.†   (source)
  • We were streaking down back roads and sparsely traveled highways that cut through a wilder, more primitive South Carolina.†   (source)
  • Here races were still held, sparsely attended by the public for lack of road transport.†   (source)
  • em side a sparse pinewood lying about two hundred yards from the gravel road which bordered the canal.†   (source)
  • Why should anyone rip up the grass, even if it was sparse grass, and make the earth grow something else?†   (source)
  • From early November until April the wolves and caribou travel together through the taiga, the sparse borderline forests of stunted spruce and jackpine lying below the timberline.†   (source)
  • Sparsely furnished, the room contained a plain pinewood table, a steel filing cabinet, four straight-backed chairs, a cot upon which Miss sometimes rested, seeking surcease from the migraine headaches that assailed him from time to time.†   (source)
  • Now I look back, or listen back, in the same desire to imagine, and it seems possible that the sound of that sparse music, so faint and unearthly to my childhood ears, was the sound he'd had to speak to him in all that country silence among so many elders where he was the only child.†   (source)
  • One touched him on the shoulder—an old, old man with sparse white stubble and tiny, close-set eyes—and called him by his name.†   (source)
  • Her hair was so sparse her head looked shaved.†   (source)
  • Randy believed nothing except what he himself heard or saw, or those sparse hard grains of fact sifted from the air waves by Sam Hazzard.†   (source)
  • These cosmogonies were natural in the ancient world-a world settled so sparsely that nature was not yet eclipsed by man.†   (source)
  • Although last-minute maneuvers failed to admit Colorado over the President's veto (sparsely populated Colorado had rejected statehood in a referendum), an unexpected tragedy brought false tears and fresh hopes for a new vote, in Kansas.†   (source)
  • His eyes moved behind the thin, sparse lids.†   (source)
  • The area is sparsely populated.
  • a sparse matrix
  • The only light came from sparsely placed red lanterns, pale in the shadows.†   (source)
  • With nothing for miles and miles but sparse, dead land.†   (source)
  • The traffic was sparse, and Langdon felt fading hope as he scanned for taxis.†   (source)
  • I expected the camp to be sparsely populated.†   (source)
  • These two are very young: one mustache is still sparse, one face is still blotchy.†   (source)
  • He retreated into the brush until he came out on the other side into a sparse pine wood.†   (source)
  • I've searched our archive thoroughly, but unfortunately the information is sparse.†   (source)
  • We climbed a few steps and entered a large, sparsely decorated house.†   (source)
  • Sparse clumps of plant growth were scattered around it.†   (source)
  • The water came down between our bodies and wet the sparse hair along his chest and stomach.†   (source)
  • Small, deep windows let in only sparse rays of light.†   (source)
  • They sit on the floor in a sparsely furnished room.†   (source)
  • "Which was?" asks Reverend Verringer, lifting his sparse eyebrows.†   (source)
  • Kit looked around at the much mended clothing and the sparse furnishings of the little room.†   (source)
  • His funeral, on a warm, rainy August day, was only sparsely attended.†   (source)
  • The fish were plentiful, the campers sparse.†   (source)
  • He fingered the sparse bristles along his jaw.†   (source)
  • The tree was a tall cedar with only sparse scrub branches down low.†   (source)
  • The sun is made of a sparse but expansive gaseous outer layer and a dense and hot inner core.†   (source)
  • In its window is a sparse display of wrenches and hinges.†   (source)
  • You've seen them in sparse, semi-arid scrublands.†   (source)
  • After the sparse dinner, Eragon asked bluntly, "How did they find us?"†   (source)
  • Hawat lowered his head, looked upward through his sparse lashes.†   (source)
  • The underbrush was sparse compared to the previous day's travel and they made good time.†   (source)
  • Wisps of sandy hair protruded from it, matched by a sparse beard and thick brows.†   (source)
  • On top of the dresser, only her sparse jewelry collection remained, and the wind-up alarm clock.†   (source)
  • After picketing the horses where they could nibble the sparse grass, Murtagh started a small fire.†   (source)
  • Sparsely hung lanterns cast a moody light.†   (source)
  • The trees were sparse here, but to the east the forest would slow them.†   (source)
  • The Iron Islands were too sparse and rocky for breeding good horses.†   (source)
  • Candy's place was located just a few minutes away, toward the end of a sparsely inhabited street.†   (source)
  • Shaggy pelts covered their bodies, thick below the waist, sparser above.†   (source)
  • His eyes were huge and bulging, and the hair on his head was sparse.†   (source)
  • Sparse tufts of hair ringed his shiny bald head.†   (source)
  • Through the sparse leaves I spy the East Wing's progress.†   (source)
  • I leaned against the doorjamb, taking another look at its sparse furnishings.†   (source)
  • On either side of him, the landscape was flat and sparse and about as exciting as pancake batter.†   (source)
  • But she wasn't seeing the sparse, dead land surrounding us.†   (source)
  • Newman nodded at one of the MPs at the back of the sparsely furnished room.†   (source)
  • Traffic was sparse out there in the heart of nowhere.†   (source)
  • Tonight, a lone piano serenaded a sparse, more mature crowd.†   (source)
  • It was too sparse to support the herd for long.†   (source)
  • King Hizdahr had allowed the fighting pits to remain open, but the crowds were sparse.†   (source)
  • While the details are sparse, it could only have been one of the most dreadful moments of his life.†   (source)
  • Sparsely furnished with a few skins and some cooking pots, the cave had no luxuries to speak of.†   (source)
  • I come around the back corner, and there is the eroded hill, with its few sparse trees.†   (source)
  • But we haven't got the resources," said another man, thin, with sparse graying hair.†   (source)
  • The eunuch's apartments were sparse and small, three snug windowless chambers under the north wall.†   (source)
  • Between her legs, sparse hair clings to a swell of flesh.†   (source)
  • Sparse black bristles grew over the whole of his hide.†   (source)
  • He scowled at her, and his sparse eyebrows met, forming a single straight line.†   (source)
  • They rode in silence through sparse woodland where the trees leaned drunkenly away from the sea.†   (source)
  • The rooms were sparsely decorated, almost as if no one lived there.†   (source)
  • It was furnished sparsely, just a few tables scattered about.†   (source)
  • All the other reporters were still piecing together the sparse details released by the police.†   (source)
  • Perfect round rings wafting up from her fleecy bush, still somewhat fine and sparse.†   (source)
  • He was a rangy man with sparse hair and a gap between his two front teeth.†   (source)
  • I passed a sparse plantation of coffee trees, then straggly guava bushes.†   (source)
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