hardly

Adverb

WordNet 3.0

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”Synonyms: barely just scarcely scarce
almost not“he hardly ever goes fishing”“he was hardly more than sixteen years old”“they scarcely ever used the emergency generator”Synonyms: scarcely

Hardly \Hard"ly\ (h[aum]rd"l[y^]), adv. [AS. heardlice. See Hard.] [1913 Webster]

1.In a hard or difficult manner; with difficulty. [1913 Webster]

Recovering hardly what he lost before.— Dryden.[1913 Webster]

2.Unwillingly; grudgingly. [1913 Webster]

The House of Peers gave so hardly their consent.— Milton.[1913 Webster]

3.Scarcely; barely; not quite; not wholly. [1913 Webster]

Hardly shall you find any one so bad, but he desires the credit of being thought good.— South.[1913 Webster]

4.Severely; harshly; roughly. [1913 Webster]

He has in many things been hardly used.— Swift.[1913 Webster]

5.Confidently; hardily. [Obs.] --Holland. [1913 Webster]

6.Certainly; surely; indeed. [Obs.] --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]