Library / English Dictionary

BARELY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adverb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Only a very short time before

Example:

would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave

Synonyms:

barely; hardly; just; scarce; scarcely

Classified under:

Adverbs

Sense 2

Meaning:

By a little

Example:

the batter just missed being hit

Synonyms:

barely; just

Classified under:

Adverbs

Sense 3

Meaning:

Almost not

Example:

we were so far back in the theater, we could barely read the subtitles

Synonyms:

barely; hardly; scarce; scarcely

Classified under:

Adverbs

Credits

 Context examples: 

“The brief window of summer would have barely been sufficient for rowing the many hundreds of miles north and back.”

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

One young man managed to rupture the back of his throat during this manoeuvre, leaving him barely able to speak or swallow, and in considerable pain.

(Blocking A Sneeze, Man Ruptures Throat, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

There was once a merchant who had only one child, a son, that was very young, and barely able to run alone.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

A new Moon occurs when all of the Sun’s light is reflected away from Earth, and the side of the Moon facing Earth is barely visible, as illustrated in the above figures.

(Earthshine, NASA)

In the image, the disk of Uranus is just barely resolved.

(Cassini spies the ice-giant planet Uranus, NASA)

“My love,” he observed, “perhaps you will allow me to remark that it is barely possible that I DO feel my position at the present moment.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A hawk, driving down out of the blue, had barely missed him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I should not, perhaps, have to make the sacrifice long, as it wanted now barely three months to his departure.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Those who can barely live, and who live perforce in a very small, and generally very inferior, society, may well be illiberal and cross.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The Note 7 had barely been on the market for a month when Samsung announced a global recall of 2.5 million units due to faulty batteries in early September.

(Samsung Ends Production of Problem-Plagued Galaxy Note 7, Voanews)