hardly Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adverb only a very short time before
    scarce; scarcely; barely; just.
    • they could barely hear the speaker
    • we hardly knew them
    • just missed being hit
    • had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open
    • would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave"- W.B.Yeats
  2. adverb almost not
    scarcely.
    • he hardly ever goes fishing
    • he was hardly more than sixteen years old
    • they scarcely ever used the emergency generator

WordNet

Hard"ly adverb
Etymology
AS.heardlice. See Hand.
Definitions
  1. In a hard or difficult manner; with difficulty.
    Recovering hardly what he lost before. Dryden.
  2. Unwillingly; grudgingly.
    The House of Peers gave so hardly thei consent. Milton.
  3. Scarcely; barely; not guite; not wholly.
    Hardly shall you one so bad, but he desires the credit of being thought good. South.
  4. Severely; harshly; roughly.
    He has in many things been hardly used. Swift.
  5. Confidently; hardily. Obs. Holland.
  6. Certainly; surely; indeed. Obs. Chaucer.

Webster 1913