- By a small margin; barely: We scarcely made it in time.
- Almost not; hardly: We scarcely ever used the reserve generator.
- Certainly not: They could scarcely complain after such good treatment.
USAGE NOTE Because scarcely has the force of a negative, its use with another negative, as in I couldn't scarcely believe it, is regarded as incorrect. • A clause following scarcely is correctly introduced by when or before; the use of than, though common, is still unacceptable to some grammarians: The meeting had scarcely begun whenthandouble negative, hardly.
