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few and far between

adj

Etymology

Attested at least since the 17th century. Was originally reserved for physical objects, such as houses, appearing with wide gaps between, but today it is also applied to more abstract things. Being rare also implies that the average gaps between the objects are wide.

Definitions

  1. Rare and scarce

    Rare and scarce; hard to find.

    • On a line like the Santa Fe, in such desert country as that on the Chicago-Los Angeles main line through Arizona and New Mexico, stations are few and far between, and at many of them one or two employees are the only permanent staff.
    • As with other railways, more Mk 1s are urgently required but disposals by BR are few and far between at present.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for few and far between. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA