Learn English – “few and far between” meaning

idiomsinversionmeaningphrase-meaning

I checked the dictionary for the meaning of this expression. It means "not very many or not appearing very frequently".

Can anybody decompose this structure and justify why the expression gets this meaning? Especially, what is the "far between" part meaning here?

Thanks

Best Answer

This sentence:

In the desert, gas stations are few and far between.

means that there are few gas stations in the desert, and there is a lot of space between any two gas stations. In other words, there are few gas stations and they are widely dispersed. Far between refers to the distance between the gas stations.

I'm a native speaker, and I found this expression confusing for many years. But it does make sense.

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