What's the difference between spare and sparse?

Spare


Definition:

  • (a.) To use frugally or stintingly, as that which is scarce or valuable; to retain or keep unused; to save.
  • (a.) To keep to one's self; to forbear to impart or give.
  • (a.) To preserve from danger or punishment; to forbear to punish, injure, or harm; to show mercy to.
  • (a.) To save or gain, as by frugality; to reserve, as from some occupation, use, or duty.
  • (a.) To deprive one's self of, as by being frugal; to do without; to dispense with; to give up; to part with.
  • (v. i.) To be frugal; not to be profuse; to live frugally; to be parsimonious.
  • (v. i.) To refrain from inflicting harm; to use mercy or forbearance.
  • (v. i.) To desist; to stop; to refrain.
  • (v. t.) Scanty; not abundant or plentiful; as, a spare diet.
  • (v. t.) Sparing; frugal; parsimonious; chary.
  • (v. t.) Being over and above what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous; as, I have no spare time.
  • (v. t.) Held in reserve, to be used in an emergency; as, a spare anchor; a spare bed or room.
  • (v. t.) Lean; wanting flesh; meager; thin; gaunt.
  • (v. t.) Slow.
  • (n.) The act of sparing; moderation; restraint.
  • (n.) Parsimony; frugal use.
  • (n.) An opening in a petticoat or gown; a placket.
  • (n.) That which has not been used or expended.
  • (n.) The right of bowling again at a full set of pins, after having knocked all the pins down in less than three bowls. If all the pins are knocked down in one bowl it is a double spare; in two bowls, a single spare.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Consequently, it is important to predict accurately dose for such fields to ensure adequate coverage of the target region and sparing of healthy tissues.
  • (2) Crown prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz said yesterday that the state had "spared no effort" to avoid such disasters but added that "it cannot stop what God has preordained.
  • (3) Vascular surgical procedures sparing renal parenchyma are relatively new, as the most common treatment for this condition had been nephrectomy.
  • (4) Juvenile diabetics appear to have fewer cutaneous abnormalities than adults who develop the disease, but the juvenile diabetic is not spared.
  • (5) On histopathologic examination there were microabscesses in the inner choroid and subretinal space, disrupting the outer retina but sparing the inner retina.
  • (6) Injuries due to fellatio must be considered as an etiological factor to hemorrhagic changes of the oral mucosa, and with a positive history, patients can be spared from other investigations.
  • (7) We report that kainic acid lesions of the posterior corpus striatum, which preferentially spare fibers of passage while destroying striatopallidal neurons, produce a stimulus-sensitive movement pattern in rats that has a highly specific sensory trigger.
  • (8) Bipolar cells appeared to be spared from damage at these doses.
  • (9) However, hemodynamic effects of the compound, suggesting an oxygen sparing action, did not preclude the antifibrillatory effectiveness.
  • (10) I know you're busy, but spare a few minutes to read at least some of it.
  • (11) Sparing technique was used in all operations, carried out under local anesthesia with 2% procaine or trimecaine.
  • (12) A previous study has described considerable sparing of vision after combined optic tract and visual cortex lesions in cats.
  • (13) The menace we’re facing – and I say we, because no one is spared – is embodied by the hooded men who are ravaging the cradle of civilization.
  • (14) The loss of muscarinic and the sparing of benzodiazepine receptors occurs in the temporal cortex of histologically normal brains in the absence of significant atrophy and of gross dementia.
  • (15) Muscle sparing thoracotomy can be used safely for most thoracic procedures and we believe it permits easier pain control and early preservation of full shoulder motion.
  • (16) However, our studies suggest that much of the initial damage is extracellular, sparing nerve fiber layer axons.
  • (17) The script is taken almost entirely from Charles Webb 's excellent novel, which itself is sparely written and led by dialogue.
  • (18) United had been spared and, in the next attack, Jesse Lingard turned Michael Carrick’s crossfield pass across the penalty area for Rooney, so beleaguered recently, to head in the team’s first goal for six hours and 44 minutes of play.
  • (19) Not only are the treatment results with regional hyperthermic perfusions excellent for both primary and locally recurrent sarcomas of the extremities, but limbs previously considered unsalvagable can be spared.
  • (20) The isointensity bands in the ischemic area on T2-weighted images showed the spared transverse fibers originating from the contralateral pontine nuclei, and this may explain the cause of the unilateral ataxia.

Sparse


Definition:

  • (superl.) Thinly scattered; set or planted here and there; not being dense or close together; as, a sparse population.
  • (superl.) Placed irregularly and distantly; scattered; -- applied to branches, leaves, peduncles, and the like.
  • (v. t.) To scatter; to disperse.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Homozygotes have sparse greasy fur and lower viability and fertility than normal littermates.
  • (2) Fifteen days after axotomy of the olfactory nerves, two stained patterns which were numerously or sparsely labelled regions were observed.
  • (3) The capacity (Bmax) for [3H]ketanserin binding was significantly lower (-21%; p less than 0.05) in sparse fur animals than in control animals; there was no change in affinity (KD).
  • (4) Sparse cell plating densities were used to minimize cell-cell contact formation and all studies were carried out in chemically defined medium that contained a saturating amount of soluble growth factors.
  • (5) With this modification one obtains, for sparsely ionizing radiation, a quality factor which is proportional to the dose average of lineal energy, y.
  • (6) Long term data on thiazide monotherapy are sparse but suggest a persistence of the lipid effect for as long as 6 years of treatment.
  • (7) If a sparse crowd, shivering in suddenly chill conditions out of step with the warmth Edmonton had enjoyed in previous days, did not exactly help the atmosphere, the action remained intense.
  • (8) We have investigated alternative ways of showing variations in child health by using different aggregations of Enumeration Districts (ED) in a small, sparsely populated rural area.
  • (9) The literature on the possible risk of myasthenia gravis complicating pregnancy and delivery is sparse and partly contradictory but some of the reports on the number of perinatal and neonatal deaths are alarming.
  • (10) Fewer, but still ample numbers, of SP-reactive axons are present also in the ventral tegmental and retrorubral areas of the midbrain tegmentum and in the ventral pallidum of the basal forebrain, but only sparse ME-reactive axons are present in these areas.
  • (11) Histologically, vascular lesions such as vacuolization, degeneration and desquamation of the endothelium and hyalinization and necrosis of the muscular coat predominated, whereas reparatory reactions were relatively sparse.
  • (12) Two principal classes of striatum long axonal neurons (sparsely ramified reticular cells and densely ramified dendritic cells) were analyzed quantitatively in four animal species: hedgehog, rabbit, dog and monkey.
  • (13) Instead the government insists that the sparse legislative agenda reflected a streamlining of government priorities to help it better cope with the downturn.
  • (14) The situation of high cell density could be mimicked by the addition of glutaraldehyde-fixed cells to sparsely seeded proliferating cells.
  • (15) Delta opioid labeling was sparse throughout most of the hypothalamus; however, moderate binding densities were detected in the suprachiasmatic and ventromedial nucleus.
  • (16) Except for sparse labeling in lamina I in some of the cases and some minor differences rostrocaudally, the spinal distribution of labeling was similar to that from the other nerves investigated.
  • (17) This hypothesis is supported by the observation that the single cell type which continues to express the vimentin-IFAPa-400 combination in the mature heart is the Purkinje fibres, which are also subjected to high mechanical tensions but in which myofibrils are generally sparse compared to working myocytes.
  • (18) Collateral coronary blood flow was fairly sparse in most cases and in 4 left ventricular dysfunction of varying degree was present.
  • (19) The technique of long-term, open catheterization of the spinal subarachnoid space for infusion of analgesics in patients with refractory cancer pain is sparsely reported in the literature.
  • (20) A sparse adrenergic innervation of the detrusor muscle was found.