narrowly
/ˈnarəʊli
/adverb
1Only just; by only a small margin: the party was narrowly defeated in the elections...
- He made to swipe me with the bottle, narrowly missing my face and catching me in the shoulder instead.
- Later, she claimed, two further women in her party were narrowly missed by a Land Rover.
- He's leading in New Hampshire narrowly or within the margin of run of most polls.
Synonyms
only just, just, barely, scarcely, hardly, by a hair's breadth, by a very small margin, by the narrowest of margins, by the skin of one's teeth, by a nose
informal by a whisker
2Closely or carefully: he was looking at her narrowly...
- In addition, our attention becomes more narrowly focused on the physical source of our pleasure.
- Tim watched Anna narrowly as her attention and her hands wandered below his waist.
- She scanned the baby narrowly, then looked as searchingly at Sandra, whose face was turned to gaze across the fields.
Synonyms
closely, carefully, searchingly, scrutinizingly, attentively;
meticulously, scrupulously, painstakingly
3In a limited or restricted way: narrowly defined tasks...
- It's just that their conception of what constitutes support is limited very narrowly to career advancement.
- They get to control it, for a limited time and it should be more narrowly limited than it is right now.
- Terrorism must be defined far more narrowly than in this proposal.