[
US
/ˈbɛɹɫi/
]
[ UK /bˈeəli/ ]
[ UK /bˈeəli/ ]
ADVERB
-
by a little
it was barely 5 a.m.
I only just caught the bus
the network has barely 5 percent of viewers
he finished the marathon in just under 3 hours
the batter just missed being hit -
almost not
they scarcely ever used the emergency generator
he hardly ever goes fishing
we were so far back in the theater, we could barely read the subtitles
she barely seemed to notice him
he was scarce sixteen years old
I can hardly hear what she is saying -
only a very short time before
we hardly knew them
had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open
would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave
How To Use barely In A Sentence
- He pulled himself up and stumbled to the bathroom, where he turned on the cold tap and collapsed at the bottom of the shower, barely awake.
- An iceberg smashes its way to the surface, all sharp angles and ragged edges, rearing over the barely visible remains of a crushed and sinking ship.
- They had barely been fed and their heads were shaved. The Sun
- Still, the crêpe was even oilier - thick, flabby and barely hot, with the flavour of an onion-soaked flannel. Times, Sunday Times
- Spaghetti carbonara and giant, ricotta-stuffed ravioli in an earthy sauté of porcini mushrooms, barely touched with tomato, both did credit to the pasta roster.
- And also barely functioning as an able-minded human being. IN ODDER NEWS: Kathy Griffin’s Emmy Speech, Uncensored | Best Week Ever
- Those qualities were instead projected on to a father he had barely known and a figure he invented in fiction. Times, Sunday Times
- His voice sunk to a barely perceptible level.
- Surely one of the agonizing attributes of our post – September 11 age is the unending need to reaffirm realities that have been proved, and proved again, but just as doggedly denied by those in power, forcing us to live trapped between two narratives of present history, the one gaining life and color and vigor as more facts become known, the other growing ever paler, brittler, more desiccated, barely sustained by the life support of official power. 'The Moment Has Come to Get Rid of Saddam'
- The wild subspecies that gave up their DNA for these tests still exist, though barely.