barely
- 1To a very small degree; almost not at all.
The footprints were barely visible in the fading light.
He barely managed to finish the climb before nightfall.
Note
Here the weight tips toward nothing. The plane is still in sight, but so faintly that it has almost vanished. It sits naturally with can and with words of perception: can barely see, barely visible. Sports reporting also uses it with passives, as when City were barely allowed time on the ball. Where the narrow-margin sense stresses that something was achieved, this one stresses how little there is.
- 2By a small margin; only just.
The motion passed, barely, with a single vote to spare.
She barely caught the train, sliding through the doors as they closed.
Similarnarrowly, just, scarcely
Oppositeeasily, comfortably
Note
The margin is the point: the thing happened, but only just. Someone who barely completed the homework did complete it, and a station barely a mile from Versailles is under a mile, not over it. Before a number or distance it caps the amount. Before possible, as in the 1925 silent The Phantom of the Opera, it concedes a slim chance. In this use it has no comparative.
- 3Only a short time ago; just now or recently.
We barely got back from vacation, so the suitcases are still sitting in the car.
The store barely opened, so the shelves are still being stocked.
Similarjust
Note
In Chicano English it marks time rather than margin. I barely got to the store means I just got there, not that I nearly failed to. Listeners outside that variety will tend to hear the "almost not" meaning, so pairing it with a time phrase keeps the sense clear. Like just, it takes no comparative or superlative here.
Less common meanings
- 4Only, and to no greater extent than what is stated.
Note
An older sense that stays closest to bare itself. It comes from Old English bærlīċe, bare + -ly, meaning "only, with nothing added." Danish and Norwegian bare carry the same "only, just." When Boyle wrote in 1661 that fire does not always barely separate the elements, he meant that it does more than merely separate them. In older prose it signals limitation, not difficulty. In modern writing, use merely or only.
- 5Openly and plainly, with nothing concealed.
Remember, I haven’t tried to embroider; I’m just laying the facts barely before you—as barely as I can—to make what you please out of.
1918, Arthur Johnson, “The Little Family”The term “brief” may appear somewhat inappropriate, as the legal brief is often a bulky document, but the sense is rather that the ideas are stated barely, without elaboration or persuasive enforcement.
1920, John Mantle Clapp, “Clear Thinking—Testing Your Thought”Note
A rare sense that keeps bare's idea of nothing covering: facts laid out barely are laid out without ornament. Unlike its siblings it can be compared. Arthur Johnson's narrator in Harper's Monthly (1918) lays the facts out "as barely as I can." John Mantle Clapp in 1920 describes ideas "stated barely, without elaboration." Read it as plainly or starkly, never as "almost not."
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English barely, from Old English bærlīċe, equivalent to "bare" plus "-ly"; compare Danish and Norwegian bare ("only, just").