Link Centre Dictionary

barely

ba·rely

UK/ˈbɛə.li/ US/ˈbɛːlɪj/ common

adverb

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
Synonyms
2.

in a sparse or scanty way

  • “a barely furnished room”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English baarly, bareliche, barely, barly, from Old English bærlīċe, equivalent to bare + -ly. Compare Danish bare (“only, just”), Norwegian bare (“only, just”).

Related words

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.