adv.
- scarcely; barely.
▸only with great difficulty.
▸no or not (suggesting surprise at or disagreement with a statement).
- archaic harshly.
Usage
Words like hardly, scarcely, and rarely should not be used with negative constructions. Thus, it is correct to say I can hardly wait but wrong to say I can't hardly wait. This is because adverbs like hardly are treated as if they were negatives, and it is a grammatical rule of standard English that double negatives are not acceptable. See also usage at double negative.
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