Adjacent Words

Hardly definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

H`ARDLY, adv. [See Hard.] With difficulty; with great labor.
Recovering hardly what he lost before.
1. Scarcely; barely; almost not.
Hardly shall you find any one so bad, but he desires the credit of being thought good.
2. Not quite or wholly. The object is so distant we can hardly see it. The veal is hardly done. The writing is hardly completed.
3. Grudgingly, as an injury.
4. Severely; unfavorably; as, to think hardly of public measures.
5. Rigorously; oppressively. The prisoners were hardly used or treated.
6. Unwelcomely; harshly.
Such information comes very hardly and harshly to a grown man.
7. Coarsely; roughly; not softly.
Heaven was her canopy, bare earth her bed;
So hardly lodged.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adv
1: only a very short time before; "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 [syn: barely, hardly, just, scarcely, scarce]
2: almost not; "he hardly ever goes fishing"; "he was hardly more than sixteen years old"; "they scarcely ever used the emergency generator" [syn: hardly, scarcely]

Merriam Webster's

adverb Date: before 12th century 1. with force ; vigorously 2. in a severe manner ; harshly 3. with difficulty ; painfully 4. a. — used to emphasize a minimal amount <I hardly knew her> <almost new — hardly a scratch on it> b. — used to soften a negative <you can't hardly tell who anyone is — G. B. Shaw> 5. certainly not <that news is hardly surprising> Usage: Hardly in sense 5 is used sometimes with not for emphasis <just another day at the office? Not hardly>. In sense 4b with a negative verb (as can't, wouldn't, didn't) it does not make a double negative but softens the negative. In “you can't hardly find a red one,” the sense is that you can find a red one, but only with difficulty; in “you can't find a red one,” the sense is that red ones are simply not available. Use of hardly with a negative verb is a speech form; it is most commonly heard in Southern and Midland speech areas. In other speech areas and in all discursive prose, hardly is normally used with a positive <you can hardly find a red one>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adv. 1 scarcely; only just (we hardly knew them). 2 only with difficulty (could hardly speak). 3 harshly.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Hardly Hard"ly, adv. [AS. heardlice. See Hand.] 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. You use hardly to modify a statement when you want to emphasize that it is only a small amount or detail which makes it true, and that therefore it is best to consider the opposite statement as being true. I hardly know you... Their two faces were hardly more than eighteen inches apart. = scarcely, barely ADV: ADV before v, ADV group, oft ADV amount [emphasis] 2. You use hardly in expressions such as hardly ever, hardly any, and hardly anyone to mean almost never, almost none, or almost no-one. We ate chips every night, but hardly ever had fish... Most of the others were so young they had hardly any experience... ADV: ADV ever/any 3. You use hardly before a negative statement in order to emphasize that something is usually true or usually happens. Hardly a day goes by without a visit from someone. = scarcely ADV: ADV n [emphasis] 4. When you say you can hardly do something, you are emphasizing that it is very difficult for you to do it. My garden was covered with so many butterflies that I could hardly see the flowers. ADV: can/could ADV inf [emphasis] 5. If you say hardly had one thing happened when something else happened, you mean that the first event was followed immediately by the second. He had hardly collected the papers on his desk when the door burst open... = no sooner ADV: ADV before v 6. You use hardly to mean 'not' when you want to suggest that you are expecting your listener or reader to agree with your comment. We have not seen the letter, so we can hardly comment on it... ADV: ADV before v, ADV group 7. You use 'hardly' to mean 'no', especially when you want to express surprise or annoyance at a statement that you disagree with. (SPOKEN) 'They all thought you were marvellous!'—'Well, hardly.'... CONVENTION

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

ad. 1. Scarcely, barely, but just. 2. Severely, rigorously, unkindly, cruelly, roughly.

Moby Thesaurus

a bit, a little, abnormally, arduously, at infrequent intervals, badly, barely, bitterly, burdensomely, by a hair, by an ace, by no means, closely, difficultly, energetically, ever so little, exiguously, faintly, feebly, fiercely, firmly, forcefully, forcibly, frenziedly, furiously, hardly ever, harshly, imperfectly, impliably, inappreciably, inconsequentially, incredibly, inexorably, inflexibly, infrequently, insignificantly, ironhandedly, just, just a bit, keenly, laboriously, lightly, little, madly, meagerly, might and main, mightily, minimally, minutely, narrowly, nearly, negligibly, not hardly, not often, not quite, obdurately, onerously, only, only just, painfully, powerfully, rancorously, rarely, relentlessly, rigidly, rigorously, roughly, scantily, scarce, scarcely, scarcely ever, seldom, seldom if ever, severely, slightly, solid, solidly, sorely, sparsely, stiffly, stormily, strenuously, strongly, tant soit peu, the hard way, toilsomely, triflingly, turbulently, unbendingly, uncommonly, uncompromisingly, uncustomarily, unexpectedly, unfrequently, unnaturally, unoften, unordinarily, unrelentingly, unusually, unyieldingly, very seldom, vigorously, violently, weakly, wildly, with difficulty, with much ado