scarcelyadverb
uk/ˈskeəs.li/us/ˈskers.li/scarcely adverb (ONLY JUST)
C2 almost not:
I was scarcely able to move my arm after the accident.
I could scarcely believe it when she said she wanted to marry me.
used to say that something happened immediately after something else happened:
I had scarcely sat down/Scarcely had I sat down to eat when the phone rang.
Synonym
barely
hardly
More examples
- I scarcely registered the fact that he was there.
- I scarcely heard him laugh all night.
- The city centre has scarcely changed in over a century.
- She spoke so quietly that I could scarcely hear her.
- By this time he was so drunk he could scarcely stand up.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Merely and barely
- all
- all of sth idiom
- at a pinch idiom
- barely
- but
- by a whisker idiom
- by inches idiom
- hardly
- ill
- inch
- merely
- merest
- narrowly
- nothing
- nothing more than idiom
- only
- pinch
- whisker
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Before, after and already
Closeness in distance and time
scarcely adverb (NOT)
certainly not:
I'd scarcely have done it if I didn't think it was absolutely necessary!
He's only two - you can scarcely blame him for behaving badly.
Synonym
hardly
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Yes, no & not
- absolutely
- anything
- bet
- betcha
- does a bear/do bears shit in the woods? idiom
- fear
- hear, hear! idiom
- hell
- much
- no dice idiom
- no way idiom
- noes
- not by any manner of means idiom
- not so much sth as sth idiom
- not that idiom
- perish the thought idiom
- see sb in hell before ... idiom
- think
- yea or nay idiom
- yes
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