Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Scarcely"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Scarce \Scarce\, Scarcely \Scarce"ly\, adv.
1. With difficulty; hardly; scantly; barely; but just.
With a scarce well-lighted flame. --Milton.
The eldest scarcely five year was of age. --Chaucer.
Slowly she sails, and scarcely stems the tides.
--Dryden.
He had scarcely finished, when the laborer arrived
who had been sent for my ransom. --W. Irving.
2. Frugally; penuriously. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
scarcely
adv 1: by a small margin; "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}, {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}]
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