SCARCELY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does scarcely mean? 

• SCARCELY (adverb)
  The adverb SCARCELY has 2 senses:

1. only a very short time before

2. almost not

  Familiarity information: SCARCELY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCARCELY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Only a very short time before

Synonyms:

barely; hardly; just; scarce; scarcely

Context example:

would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave

Sense 2

Meaning:

Almost not

Synonyms:

barely; hardly; scarce; scarcely

Context example:

we were so far back in the theater, we could barely read the subtitles

Pertainym:

scarce (deficient in quantity or number compared with the demand)

 Context examples 

True: yet I should scarcely fancy Mr. Rochester would entertain an idea of the sort.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

All the little variations of the last week were gone through; and of yesterday and today there could scarcely be an end.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The wood was seasoned and dry, and it was tied so closely to his neck that he could scarcely get his teeth to it.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I took her to myself when her character was scarcely formed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“You scarcely touch me,” said he.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Perhaps, indeed, at that time she scarcely saw Mr. Elton, but as the clergyman whose blessing at the altar might next fall on herself.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Of her other, her older, her more established friend, Isabella, of whose fidelity and worth she had enjoyed a fortnight's experience, she scarcely saw anything during the evening.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Then the giant picked up a stone and threw it so high that the eye could scarcely follow it.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

"It seems to me I can scarcely wait till I get to Oz, and you must admit this is a very long journey."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

My haggard and wild appearance awoke intense alarm, but I answered no question, scarcely did I speak.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)