hardly (adv.)

  1. only a very short time before; they could barely hear the speaker; we hardly knew them; just missed being hit; had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open; would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave- W.B.Yeats

    [ Syn: barely , barely , just , just , scarcely , scarcely , scarce , scarce , barely , barely , just , just , scarcely , scarcely , scarce , scarce , barely , barely , just , just , scarcely , scarcely , scarce , scarce , barely , barely , just , just , scarcely , scarcely , scarce , scarce ]

  2. almost not; he hardly ever goes fishing; he was hardly more than sixteen years old; they scarcely ever used the emergency generator

    [ Syn: scarcely , scarcely , scarcely , scarcely , scarcely , scarcely , scarcely , scarcely ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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