Sauteing is probably one of the most common ways of cooking where you would be using just enough grease from fat or oil to cook your food. In a sense it is like halfway between searing and stir frying.

To illustrate the point how sauteing would turn into stir fry in cooking of a fried rice dish. 

Sauteing, by definition, cooking with little grease or oil when sauteed with egg and onion prior to putting in the white rice then adding sauces to stir fried.