(superl.) Not many; small, limited, or confined in number; -- indicating a small portion of units or individuals constituing a whole; often, by ellipsis of a noun, a few people.
Example Sentences:
Occasional
Definition:
(a.) Of or pertaining to an occasion or to occasions; occuring at times, but not constant, regular, or systematic; made or happening as opportunity requires or admits; casual; incidental; as, occasional remarks, or efforts.
(a.) Produced by accident; as, the occasional origin of a thing.
Example Sentences:
(1) Histiocytes, lymphocytes, immunoblasts, and plasma cells were present in expanded paracortical regions which encroached on, and occasionally effaced, lymphoid follicles.
(2) While they may always be encumbered by censorship in a way that HBO is not, the success of darker storylines, antiheroes and the occasional snow zombie will not be lost in an entertainment industry desperate to maintain its share of the audience.
(3) Occasional vomits occur postoperatively in over half of patients but we are sceptical of the value of graded postoperative feeding regimens.
(4) The epithelium of Brunner's gland stained intensely with Ricinus communis agglutinin-I (RCA-I), succinylated-WGA (S-WGA) and wheat-germ agglutinin (WGA), moderately with Bandeirea simplicifolia agglutinin-I (BS-I), Concanavalia ensiformis agglutinin (Con A) peanut agglutinin (PNA) and Ulex europaeus agglutinin-I (UEA-I) and occasionally with Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA), Lens culinaris agglutinin (LCA) and soybean agglutinin (SBA).
(5) Our interest in the role of association brain structures during this behavior is not occasional.
(6) The region of the tentorium and straight sinus can occasionally give rise to a vermiform appearance (the "AVM artifact").
(7) It should also be realised that, in a very few hospitals, swabs which do not have an opaque marker may occasionally be used in theatre.
(8) He was often detained and occasionally beaten when he returned to Minsk for demonstrations, but “if he thought it was professional duty to uncover something, he did that no matter what threats were made,” Kalinkina said.
(9) Tissue sections, taken from foliate and circumvallate papillae, generally revealed taste buds in which all cells were immunoreactive; however, occasionally some taste buds were found to contain highly reactive individual cells adjacent to non-reactive cells.
(10) Her success has not been universally welcomed - anonymous colleagues are occasionally quoted in the media portraying her as "ambitious" and "bossy".
(11) Strains showing occasional antagonism at a particular proportion of concentrations of the test combination, were found to only be indifferent when the mean index of the fractional inhibition concentration of all checkerboard combinations was calculated.
(12) Occasionally, these aggregates coagulate and contract into a dense gel in the absence of MgATP or CaATP.
(13) The virus neutralizing (VN) titers were occasionally lower where the polyvalent vaccines were used when compared to those from chickens given the monovalent vaccines.
(14) Combining drugs may only occasionally be advisable to supplement a desired effect or to attenuate an unwanted one.
(15) Stimulation of this mechanism produced an average 58.9% reduction of the heart rate (calculated from 55 responsive points having more than 40% reduction) associated mostly with hypotension, or no change or occasionally a slight increase of the arterial blood pressure.
(16) In the progeny of the surviving males, neither translocations nor independent fragments are found; indirect evidence indicated the occasional presence of inversions.
(17) Occasionally symptomatic kinking of the internal carotid artery will require correction.
(18) At thoracic levels occasional neurons of the intermediolateral column cell group were NGF receptor positive.
(19) The PAF receptor antagonist SRI 63-072 in a dose of 0.6 mg, reversed by 70% the reduction of coronary flow within 2-4 min after its addition to the perfusate; ED50 was 0.4 mg. Bradycardia and arrhythmia were reduced; however, the normal electrical activity was only occasionally restored.
(20) Staphylococci were the predominant inhabitants of normal skin, whereas micrococci were found only occasionally in this environment.