faintly

adv

Etymology: From Middle English feintli, feintliche, equivalent to faint + -ly.

1. In a faint manner; very quietly or lightly.

   “So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.”

   “Faintlier, faintlier came the footfalls to his ear, until of all the faint sounds that came, by the abandoned air, to his ear, not one was a footfall, as far as he could judge.”