sprinkling

sprinkling

1. present participle and gerund of sprinkle

sprinkling (plural sprinklings)

1. The action of the verb to sprinkle.
2. A small thinly distributed amount, e.g. of some liquid, powder or other fine substance that is sprinkled on to something.
   • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 9, page 299:

     Among the devotees […] were persons who suffered from loathsome skin diseases, such as smallpox, abscesses, and the itch; and among them there was a fair sprinkling of debauchees, who had drunk themselves nearly blind and hoped to recover the use of their precious eyes by parading for a month in this curious mantle.

   • 2020 December 2, Philip Haigh, “When will Wales's wish for rail improvements come true?”, in Rail, page 32:

     It notes: "The Welsh Government's view is that genuine 'levelling up' cannot simply mean a sprinkling of new, ad hoc rail projects decided in Whitehall, it has to be part of a strategic approach to promoting growth in all parts of the UK."

3. A light shower of rain.
4. A scattering.

• “sprinkling”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.