Dictionary

scarcely en · ADV

Pronunciation

• /ˈskɛəsli/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (US) audio
• /ˈskɛɹsli/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Middle English scarcely, scarsly, scarsely, scarsliche, scarseliche, equivalent to scarce + -ly.

Meanings

1. (modal) Probably not.
   • One could scarcely find any trout in the stream without the stocking program.
   • The staff here are frequently in the news, thanks to their successful efforts to make an attractive station where travellers would scarcely expect to find one. 1951 October, William B. Stocks, “A Few Miles from Huddersfield”, in Railway Magazine, page 701:
2. (modal) Certainly not, hardly at all.
   • One could scarcely expect the man to know how to fly a helicopter.
   • But, of course, this weather had put a stop to every kind of movement; for even if men could have borne the cold, they could scarcely be brought to face the perils of the snow-drifts. 1869, R. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone:
   • He did not enter upon the subject without being aware that government by its very nature counteracts the improvement of individual intellect; but, as the views he entertains in this particular are out of the common road, it is scarcely to be wondered at that he understood the proposition more completely as he proceeded, and saw more distinctly into the nature of the remedy. 1842, William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice:
   • His clothes could scarcely be called shabby, at least they passed muster in the half-light, but one’s imagination could not have pictured the wearer embarking on the purchase of a half-crown box of chocolates or laying out ninepence on a carnation buttonhole. 1914, Saki, “Dusk”, in Beasts and Super-Beasts:
   • The planet Mars, I scarcely need remind the reader, revolves about the sun at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles, and the light and heat it receives from the sun is barely half of that received by this world. 1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds:
3. (qualifier:degree) Hardly: only just; by a small margin.
   • Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best—for that we must have recourse to art. 1993, Baltasar Gracián, translated by Joseph Jacobs, The Art of Worldly Wisdom:
   • In 1776 manufactories scarcely existed even in name in all this vast territory. 1875 December 7, Ulysses S. Grant, Ulysses S. Grant's Seventh State of the Union Address:
   • It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye to a telescope. 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Difficulties on Theory”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 188:
   • But we shall take scarcely more than two years to reach it, while we should have needed almost as much time to arrive in the region of Proxima Centauris. 1963, Pierre Boulle, Planet of the Apes:
   • He had scarcely finished, when the labourer arrived who had been sent for my ransom. 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC:
   • A freeport offers few tax advantages and scarcely any security features that a standard bonded warehouse cannot provide. But Bouvier’s development in Singapore carried within it two ideas. The first is that freeports will become hubs in the sixty-billion-dollar international art market, destinations in themselves—places for scholars, restorers, insurers, art-finance specialists, consultants, and dealers. 2016 January 31, Sam Knight, “The Art-World Insider Who Went Too Far”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN, archived from the original on 17 Apr 2016:
   • Scarcely had she got fairly into it, however, before the beasts closed in behind her, […] 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet:
   • Scarcely had she arrived when she was put to work.
   • That night, and for many nights after, the Velveteen Rabbit slept in the Boy’s bed. At first he found it rather uncomfortable, for the Boy hugged him very tight, and sometimes he rolled over on him, and sometimes he pushed him so far under the pillow that the Rabbit could scarcely breathe. 1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
   • “Scarcely had Alice reached her twentieth birthday, than she gave her erstwhile fiancée [sic] his formal congé.[…]” 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Disappearance of Count Collini”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

Forms

Relateds

rarely

Synonyms

hardly · just (barely, almost not or not quite) · scarce · barely (degree: by a small margin) · scarce · hardly (barely, almost not or not quite) · only just (barely, almost not or not quite) · barely (barely, almost not or not quite)

Translations (47)

la vix (almost not, by a small margin) · pt mal (almost not, by a small margin) · grc μόλις (almost not, by a small margin) · nl nauwelijks (almost not, by a small margin) · es apenas (almost not, by a small margin) · gd air èiginn (certainly not) · got 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌹𐍅 (almost not, by a small margin) · ru е́ле (probably not) · wa a poenne (almost not, by a small margin) · bg едва (almost not, by a small margin) · sv knappt (almost not, by a small margin) · hu aligha (probably not) · fi hädin tuskin (almost not, by a small margin) · ru едва́ ли (probably not) · ga ní móide (almost not, by a small margin) · enm scarsly (almost not, by a small margin) · hu alig (almost not, by a small margin) · cs sotva (probably not) · ga ní móide (certainly not) · ru с трудо́м (probably not) · ga ní móide (probably not) · cs sotva (almost not, by a small margin) · fi tuskin (probably not) · fr à peine (almost not, by a small margin) · fr guère (almost not, by a small margin) · eo apenaŭ (almost not, by a small margin) · nl amper (almost not, by a small margin) · bg съвсем не (certainly not) · hu bajosan (probably not) · ru е́ле-е́ле (probably not) · wa a schipe (almost not, by a small margin) · la haud (certainly not) · fi tuskin (certainly not) · es difícilmente (almost not, by a small margin) · cs sotva (certainly not) · gd air èiginn (probably not) · bg едва ли (probably not) · gd air èiginn (almost not, by a small margin) · fi tuskin (almost not, by a small margin) · pt dificilmente (probably not) · ru едва́ (probably not) · la haud (almost not, by a small margin) · hu nemigen (probably not) · ru вря́д ли (probably not) · ga ar éigean (certainly not) · de kaum (almost not, by a small margin) · ga ar éigean (probably not)