Adverb
-
almost not
"he hardly ever goes fishing"
"he was hardly more than sixteen years old"
"they scarcely ever used the emergency generator"
-
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