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barely

[bair-lee]

Example Sentences Origin

adverb

only just; scarcely; no more than; almost not: He had barely enough money to pay for the car.

without disguise or concealment; openly: They gave the facts to him barely.

scantily; meagerly; sparsely.

Archaic. merely.

Origin:
before 950; Middle English; Old English bærlīce. See bare¹, -ly

Can be confused: barely, hardly, scarcely (see synonym and usage notes at hardly).

Usage note
1. See hardly.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To barely

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Barely is always a great word to know.

So is bezoar. Does it mean:

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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Example Sentences

Jacobs barely makes contact with another player during the sequence.

Networking with peers in the evenings typically means barely seeing her daughter and her husband, also a graduate.

Brazil's security apparatus was built by the generals and has barely been reformed.

EXPAND

Jacobs barely makes contact with another player during the sequence.

Networking with peers in the evenings typically means barely seeing her daughter and her husband, also a graduate.

Brazil's security apparatus was built by the generals and has barely been reformed.

As the name suggests, western springbeauty blooms in the spring, barely waiting for the snow to melt.

When the going gets tough, some people barely notice.

Often barely three feet wide and half that deep, the lowly acequia is a hand-dug, lovingly maintained ditch.

Cuttings are easily rooted: let dry for a few days, then plant in sandy soil and keep barely moist until new growth appears.

Mega-large, barely portable computers continue to trickle onto the market.

Germany is in many ways in the eye of the storm, with barely a hint of the winds swirling nearby.

Barely one in six ninth-graders make it to an undergraduate degree.

In hard hit markets, the boost provided by the tax credit only barely managed to halt rapid decline.

Tales of unsuspecting travelers who barely made it home.

She stood barely more than a meter tall and had a brain the size of a chimpanzee's.

It's barely sunrise, but the alleys are already in chaos.

Water when soil is barely moist, and turn plant regularly so light reaches all sides.

Imagine a stylus barely longer than the first knuckle of your thumb.

Children, barely at the stage of walking, were not spared forced labor or punishment.

Consumers are also perking up, though compared with firms they had barely cut back.

Describing it as merely awesome barely does it justice.

Solar cells made from cheap, plastic polymer barely capture the energy in sunlight.

To say that the doctor's collection claimed every inch of the apartment is an exaggeration-but barely.

Useful for naturalizing at woodland edges or in barely maintained areas.

But those measures seem to have barely moved the needle.

Calgary is so cold one can barely go outside for half the year.

Most of the dead were in the delta, where farm families sleeping in shacks barely above sea level were swept to their deaths.

His fear caused his academic performance to be barely average.

There are a lot of people that are part of the same ethnic group that barely respond to this division.

Pale lilac to white flowers appear in spikelike clusters barely taller than the leaves.

On his first day he had six interviews and barely had time to get lunch.

Years of barely rising incomes and huge tax burdens have made them an unhappy lot.

Others barely have rooms for themselves and their children.

In the open sea, they are an almost undetectable swell, often barely inches high.

Yet modern readers barely have time to read their e-mail, let alone tackle a million word masterpiece.

Barely cooked corn is paired with crisp radishes, greens, and a zesty shallot-Dijon dressing.

Now, with the election barely four months away, the water is growing choppier.

It was amazing to see how a place that's barely been touched by man can thrive.

As soon as the ulcer forms, you can barely move that part of the body.

Soon they found themselves with a daughter and a son and barely enough income to make ends meet.

There was barely room for two stools at the counter end.

The spreads on other types of debt, such as corporate bonds, had barely shifted.

As you near your destination, the sun hangs beneath the span of the bridge, barely above the sea's surface.

Tangled, ghostly limbs barely tickle the water's surface from below.

Two black dots appeared in the distance, barely visible through swirling snow.

If the wallpaper comes off easily, you'll barely break a sweat.

Barely an hour later, her wall and message box were crammed with comments, suggestions-and the name of the hotel.

From rotten shark to bull penis, watch as people prepare and eat dishes other cultures can barely imagine.

Scientific consensus is barely useful in too many cases.

In the first, which lasted barely a year, sacred practices and ritual objects were often depicted in a representational style.

One great way is to make this barely warm tomato and white-bean stew a quick staple for back-to-school evenings.

All of which kept the economy growing in the fourth quarter-but only barely.

The robot was built for three levels of crouching, from barely crouching to a deep-seated squat.

Barely a decade ago scientists who study how planets form had to base their theory on a single example-our solar system.

We're the last ones on the road and we've barely seen anyone all day.

Teachers have gone on strike on five days of a school year that has barely begun.

The smaller cub was still cautious, barely peeking its head out from underneath mom.

Barely a month goes by without some newly uncovered fraudulent image making it into the news.

I've watched a young friend barely old enough to write turn them out by the stack.

Investors were so anxious for yield that they barely distinguished between good and bad credits.

They'd barely gotten home before a second team went deeper.

By the end of high school she was barely making it through.

Barely visible, spiderlike insects hang out on leaf undersides, often weaving delicate webs.

Barely a week goes by without some form of industrial action.

Haitians must repay the loans they barely saw, once again crippling the nation s economy.

For example, if your soil sample is powder dry on top and barely damp below, it's time to water.

Mow slowly to keep from disturbing the barely set roots.

The flowers last forever, too, and barely fade even when they're beginning to form seeds.

Seeds that will barely dent when bitten are sufficiently dry.

He was barely touched, but the car went down in a heap.

The transition from life to death will be barely perceptible" georgia_guy.

Others are barely coming to grips with the implications.

His unsmiling expression barely hinted at his inner exhilaration.

Many retailers said they would barely increase their seasonal jobs from the low level of last year.

In the space of a couple of decades the country has gone from barely touching a drop to become the.

Sudan is capitalizing on high global food prices at a time when millions there barely have enough to eat.

The transition from life to death will be barely perceptible" inthelab.

Futures and options markets for equities either do not exist locally or barely trade.

Now that's precision measurement: the electron is a perfect sphere, give or take barely one part in a million billion.

Oscar barely tolerates anyone on the ward who's not hours away from death, says the article.

The mile-long swim took her a half-hour, and she was barely able to make it up the bank, shaking.

Students work with bare hands, standing on stone floors, with barely a computer or fire extinguisher in sight.

Most of them would much rather have money in their hands today than put it aside for a retirement which they can barely imagine.

We can barely even imagine the existence of a technology that could take us to another star, let alone do.

Life is possible without music and light, but only barely.

The transition from life to death will be barely perceptible" goldenapple.

But barely a third of the audience opted to watch the boy wizard battle his snake-faced foe in three dimensions.

The men walk fast, glancing down from time to time but barely breaking stride to observe the ground for tracks.

We barely have the money to do the things that are necessary.

Today's computer scientists can barely contain their excitement as they imagine what is now possible.

The transition from life to death will be barely perceptible" magistra.

Barely out of her teens when she released her first.

What he or she may not know is that at those barely subfreezing temperatures, the crystals take the shape of small plates.

All that nutrition and energy vanishes with barely a trace.

The transition from life to death will be barely perceptible" professor_pat.

National politicians and their proxies have barely tried to explain the question on the ballot to voters.

We have barely even begun to see how well many of these technologies can perform.

If you consider gadgets' impact on humanity, wireless devices barely scratch the surface.

Sometimes a lawyer can barely get a sentence out before the questioners leave her in quivers.

And the pain will continue: a careful look at the numbers suggests that the process of deleveraging has barely begun.

The river slips southward with barely a murmur, unnoticed by many who live.

The transition from life to death will be barely perceptible" antiphon1.

The selection in many vending machines has barely changed, if it has changed at all, in a generation.

The asteroid appears to be a low-density collection barely held together by its own low gravity.

It's sad to see everything changed, you can barely recognize some of the streets, but the memories will last a lifetime.

Two weeks ago he would barely acknowledge me, now he wants to go with me everywhere.

But that is small comfort to the poor in many other countries where poverty has barely budged.

My seat was barely visible across the cabin, against a window in the next to last row.

The one at the top is huge, the other two have barely grown from their original size.

Some have such brief tenures that they barely accomplish anything at all.

Barely legible on its grimy walls a few weeks ago were cries for help.

With turmoil all around them, residents barely remember what life under a stable government is like.

If indeed you have barely repressed impulses to kill your grandparents please get help immediately.

They dive on wrecks where they can barely see and the bodies still have faces.

Tight finances have led to another year in which average pay barely increased, further eroding professors' buying power and.

Barely a word about it has appeared in the national press.

Soldiers were packed in so tightly they could find no place to sleep and could barely stand.

The sleepers barely outperformed their sleepless peers in the first comparison:.

The openings are so small that ants could barely squeeze through.

The transition from life to death will be barely perceptible" king_ghidorah.

Credible complaints that votes were bought in the countryside barely managed to taint his victory.

They usually have two grayish cubs with barely visible spots.

The thick blue rivers you see in the image above were either barely visible or completely invisible.

Add mixture to broth and rice mixture, and barely stir into soup.

The transition from life to death will be barely perceptible" losemygrip.

There was barely enough demand for the bonds to meet supply, even.

Even this far from shore the water is barely five feet deep.

Some cannons that hadn't undergone chemical treatment were barely recognizable.

We use barely any smoke, the girls stay calm, and everyone is happy.

Meanwhile the economy has barely limped back to growth.

The article barely touches on how humans would react given contact with other self-aware intelligent beings.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

barely (ˈbɛəlɪ)

—*adv*
1.	only just; scarcely: barely enough for their needs
2.	informal not quite; nearly: barely old enough
3.	scantily; poorly: barely furnished
4.	archaic openly

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

barely

O.E. bærlice "openly, clear, public;" see bare. Meaning "only, just" is recorded from late 15c.; that of "merely, simply" is from 1570s. In 15c. it also could mean "naked."

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