| 释义 |
scarcely, adv.|ˈskɛəslɪ|
Forms: see scarce a.; also α. 4 skarschliche, 6 (charsely), Sc. scairslie, skarslie, skirslie, skayirslye, 6, 8 Sc. skairslie, 7 Sc. skaircelie; β. 6 skacely.
[f. scarce a. + -ly2.]
†1. Scantily, in small quantities; inadequately, sparingly, niggardly, parsimoniously. Obs.
13..K. Alis. 1011 (Bodl. MS.), In a castel she was yshett And was assigned lyueresoun Skarslich [Weber Skarschliche] & nouȝth a foysoun. 1340Ayenb. 34 Auarice is disordene loue zuo disordene him sseweþ..ine spendinge scarsliche. a1400Cato 569 in Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. 603 Preise a mon so scarsliche, Whom þat þou wolt him proue. c1440Gesta Rom. xxxvi. 147 (Harl. MS.), Bryng home thi grehounde,..and fede it so scarsly, that hit breke no more loos. 1540–1Elyot Image Gov. (1556) 15 He dranke wine not scarcely, not to muche, but competently. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 718 It was verie scarcely inhabited, of few and small Nations. 1669Milton Accedence To Rdr., It hath been long a general complaint..that the tenth part of mans life..is taken up in learning, and that very scarcely, the Latin Tongue.
2. Originally used to express a restrictive qualification, = ‘barely’, ‘only just’; hence also, = ‘barely, or not quite’, ‘only just, if at all’. In mod. use the original sense survives only in definite statements of fact. In sentences relating to belief, expectation, or estimation, the word now (as occas. in ME.) serves as a restricted negative (= ‘not quite’). Often, however, the qualification really relates, not to the contents of the sentence in which the adv. occurs, but to the degree of the speaker's belief: thus ‘You will scarcely maintain this proposition’ is equivalent to ‘I cannot quite believe that you will maintain’, etc. Cf. scarce adv. and hardly adv.
The adv. qualifies verbs, adjs., advs., and advb. phrases, and esp. numerals (ns., adjs., and advs.), designations of quantity, and indefinite pronouns. In many cases it may most correctly be regarded as qualifying the whole predication, though placed in proximity to the word in the sentence to which the qualification chiefly relates.
α1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 10614 Þe sink pors scarseliche mid ssipes eiȝtetene. c1374Chaucer Troylus ii. 43 Eek scarsly been ther in this place three That han in love seyd lyk and doon in al. c1386― Pars. T. ⁋927 And if he abide to his laste day scarsly may he shryuen hym or remembre hym of hyse synnes. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 17 Knowleche of greet dedes is so nyh loste and forȝet, þat skarsliche [1527 charsely, Caxton 1482scarsely] bare names of places we haueþ now in mynde. c1430Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. lxxxiii. (1869) 47 Serteyn, quod he, a kyte a litel enfamined shulde skarsliche be ful sauled ther with; For it is litel. 1576Fleming Panoplie Epist. 205 Somewhat there is in them, wherewith I am skarcely pleased. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. II. x. 294 About this tyme the pest was ryfe in Scotland, cheiflie in Dundei, Abirdine, and in sum vtheris tounes and dorpes, quhilkes a hail ȝeir skirslie [sic] culd be clinsed. 1605Shakes. Macb. i. v. 37 One of my fellowes had the speed of him; Who almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Then would make vp his Message. 1713Steele Englishm. No. 40. 259 In Paris..there are scarcely six Streets wider than the narrow End of St. Martin's-lane. 1781Sir J. Reynolds Tour Flanders Wks. 1797 II. 122 It [the drapery] is scarcely ever cast with any choice or skill. 1825Macaulay Ess., Milton ⁋19 The genius of Petrarch was scarcely of the first order. 1857T. Moore Handbk. Brit. Ferns (ed. 3) 4 Sometimes it [the Caudex] is scarcely or not at all lengthened. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. x. 65 The rain continued with scarcely any pause. a1885‘H. Conway’ Living or Dead viii, He..blamed my partner, who could scarcely believe his ears.
β1542Lament. & Piteous Treatise in Harl. Misc. (1809) IV. 541 That skacely ther remayned ynough [grain] to serue us in our journeye homeward. 1551Robinson tr. More's Utopia ii. vii. (1895) 239 But in that newefonnde parte of the worlde, whiche is scaselye so farre from vs beyonde the lyne equinoctiall, as [etc.].
†b. With pleonastic negative, or in an implied negative context. Obs. (Cf. scarce adv. 2 b.)
c1369Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 289 Ne [coude] nat scarcely Macrobeus..I trowe arede my dreames even. c1400Rom. Rose 5460 Than shulde they seen who freendis ware For of an hundred, certeynly, Nor of a thousand ful scarsly, Ne shal they fynde unnethis oon, Whan povertee is comen upon. c1570W. Wager The longer thou livest 177 (Brandl), Not one good man is scarsly among ten. 1795Fate of Sedley II. 158 Recollection, however, returned before I had scarcely written a line.
c. With reference to time: Barely, only just. Chiefly with pluperfect tense, before a clause introduced by when or before.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 231 Augustus beeyng scacely come to mannes state was putte to haue dooynges in the commenweale. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. i, I had scarcely taken orders a year before I began to think seriously of matrimony. 1779Mirror No. 1, He is scarcely seated before every body present begins to form some notion of his character. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair lxvii, In old-fashioned days,..when you were scarcely born. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 10 He had scarcely said the word, when Charmides entered.
†3. Used (after L. vix) for: With difficulty. Obs.
1697Dryden Virg. Past. i. 19 This you see I scarcely drag along, Who yeaning on the Rocks has left her Young. Ibid., Georg. iii. 167. Ibid., æneid vi. 558. |