Meaning

3 senses
  1. (modal)Probably not.

    One could scarcely find any trout in the stream without the stocking program.

    едва́jedvá, едва́ лиjedvá li, вря́д лиvrjád li

  2. (modal)Certainly not, hardly at all.

    One could scarcely expect the man to know how to fly a helicopter.

  3. Hardly: only just; by a small margin.

    Scarcely had she arrived when she was put to work.

    kaum

More definitions
  • almost not
  • only a very short time before

Examples

96 sentences
  1. He can scarcely write his name.

    Він насилу може написати власне ім'я. — deniko

    ruОн с трудом может написать своё имя. — Balamax

    deEr kann kaum seinen Namen schreiben. — raggione

  2. Tom scarcely recognized Mary.

    Том ледве впізнав Мері. — deniko

    deTom erkannte Maria kaum wieder. — Pfirsichbaeumchen

  3. There was scarcely any money left.

    deEs war kaum noch Geld übrig. — Pfirsichbaeumchen

  4. We scarcely had time for lunch.

  5. Tom scarcely ever gets any exercise.

Translations

5 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
probably not:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
almost not, by a small margin:

Origin

From Middle English scarcely, scarsly, scarsely, scarsliche, scarseliche, equivalent to sc

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

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

more scarcely, most scarcely
Comparativemore scarcely Lesson
Superlativemost scarcely

regular

Synonyms

5 synonyms
degree: by a small margin:barelyB1
barely, almost not or not quite:justA1hardlyA2only just
Close in meaning

Word family

2 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

scarcely — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto