Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not softly or tenderly; roughly; severely; unfavorably; inimically.
- By hard work; with difficulty.
- Not quite or completely; only approximately; scarcely: as, it is hardly strong enough; that is hardly true.
- Barely; narrowly; almost not at all: as, hardly any; hardly ever.
- Not probably; with little likelihood: as, he will hardly come to-day.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb In a hard or difficult manner; with difficulty.
- adverb Unwillingly; grudgingly.
- adverb Scarcely; barely; not quite; not wholly.
- adverb Severely; harshly; roughly.
- adverb obsolete Confidently; hardily.
- adverb obsolete Certainly; surely; indeed.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb manner, obsolete
Firmly ,vigorously , with strength or exertion. - adverb manner, archaic
Harshly ,severely . - adverb With
difficulty . - adverb degree
Barely , onlyjust ,almost not . - interjection Not really.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb almost not
- adverb only a very short time before
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hardly.
Examples
-
The "extras" -- the word hardly does them justice -- include a Loach profile on TV's Southbank show from 1993, a new documentary about the making of the film and his landmark feature Cathy Come Home, a massively popular TV movie as worthy of attention on its own as anything Loach has done.
Michael Giltz: DVDs: Jonathan Demme's "Wild" Ride Michael Giltz 2011
-
The "extras" -- the word hardly does them justice -- include a Loach profile on TV's Southbank show from 1993, a new documentary about the making of the film and his landmark feature Cathy Come Home, a massively popular TV movie as worthy of attention on its own as anything Loach has done.
Michael Giltz: DVDs: Jonathan Demme's "Wild" Ride Michael Giltz 2011
-
The "extras" -- the word hardly does them justice -- include a Loach profile on TV's Southbank show from 1993, a new documentary about the making of the film and his landmark feature Cathy Come Home, a massively popular TV movie as worthy of attention on its own as anything Loach has done.
Michael Giltz: DVDs: Jonathan Demme's "Wild" Ride Michael Giltz 2011
-
The "extras" -- the word hardly does them justice -- include a Loach profile on TV's Southbank show from 1993, a new documentary about the making of the film and his landmark feature Cathy Come Home, a massively popular TV movie as worthy of attention on its own as anything Loach has done.
Michael Giltz: DVDs: Jonathan Demme's "Wild" Ride Michael Giltz 2011
-
Late last night, an anonymous resident from Akira Hall had recognized Aya and rekicked to her feed, but by then the fact that she had a name hardly mattered.
Scott Westerfeld: Uglies Quartet Scott Westerfeld 2010
-
He slept throughout the entire journey and woke only toward the end of the afternoon as we jolted down the narrow lane to Misenum, where Lucullus had his—well, I was going to call it a house, but the word hardly fits that veritable palace of pleasure, the Villa Cornelia, which he had bought and extended on the coast.
CONSPIRATA ROBERT HARRIS 2010
-
The title hardly sounded formidable, but Egypt ' s bureaucracy was legendary.
No Tee Time for Zubaid Alex Berenson 2010
-
Here's the Joint Working Group on what it refers to as "spoof," though the term hardly does justice to its gravity: States or terrorist organizations, for reasons that might range from protecting secrets to preventing attribution, may attempt to spoof any later investigation by mixing material from different sources.
-
Late last night, an anonymous resident from Akira Hall had recognized Aya and rekicked to her feed, but by then the fact that she had a name hardly mattered.
Extras Scott Westerfeld 2008
-
Late last night, an anonymous resident from Akira Hall had recognized Aya and rekicked to her feed, but by then the fact that she had a name hardly mattered.
Extras Scott Westerfeld 2008
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.