hardly

ENEnglish
//ˈhɑːdli//(UK)

Direct German Translations & Equivalents:

Click any term below to jump straight to its full vocabulary entry in German:

Definitions & Usage

adverb
#1

(degree) Barely, only just, almost not.

Example: They hardly ever watch television.
Example: It's hardly possible he could lose the election.
Translations:[DE]kaum
adverb
#2

Certainly not; not at all.

Example: I hardly think they'll come in this bad weather!
Translations:
adverb
#3

(now rare) With difficulty.

Example: And what gentle flame soever doth warme the heart of young virgins, yet are they hardly drawne to leave and forgoe their mothers, to betake them to their husbands […].
adverb
#4

(manner, dated) Harshly, severely; in a hard manner.

Translations:[DE]hart[DE]rau
adverb
#5

(manner, obsolete) Firmly, vigorously, with strength or exertion.

Example: Let him hardly be possest with an honest curiositie to search out the nature and causes of all things […].
interjection
#6

Not really.

Example: I think the Beatles are a really overrated band. ― Hardly!

Notable Literary & Historical Quotes

How lonely they looked as they lay there, and how ill assorted! That little heap had been for two thousand years the wisest, loveliest, proudest creature - I can hardly call her woman - in the whole universe.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

With this the second of three games in seven days for Stoke, it was hardly surprising to see nine changes from the side that started against Newcastle in the Premier League on Monday.

2011 November 3, David Ornstein, “Macc Tel-Aviv 1-2 Stoke”, in BBC Sport:

Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.

2013 July 6, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, page 68:

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