Barely

adv. [f. BARE a. + -LY².]

  1.  Nakedly, without covering, nudely.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 21/1. Barely, vbi nakydly.

1570.  Levins, Manip., /101. Barely, nude.

1601.  Shaks., All’s Well, IV. ii. 18. You barely leaue our thornes to pricke our selues.

  2.  Openly, without disguise or concealment, clearly, plainly.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., John xvi. 29. Nu … bærlice ðu spreces.

1352.  Minot, Poems, iii. (1795), 38. Thaire leders may thai barely ban.

a. 1670.  Hacket, Cent. Serm. (1675), 549. Here is the Resurrection of our Saviour barely and positively affirmed.

1875.  Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xvii. 604. When the question is put barely before them they avoid committing themselves.

  † 3.  Without qualification or reserve, unconditionally; wholly, completely; absolutely, positively. Obs.

c. 1340.  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 548. I am boun to þe bur barely to morne, To seche þe gome of þe grene.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, XXIX. 12090. He besit hym barly þe burde forto seche. Ibid., XXV. 10132. A space for his spilt men spedely to graue, And bryng hom to berynes, barly no more.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., VII. v. 125. Bot [= unless] barly þat þe Patrowne Suld gyve . hys Presentatyowne.

  4.  Merely, simply, only. arch.

1577.  Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 526. Not barely in word, but truly in deed.

1682.  Norris, Hierocles, 89. Goodness of action does not consist barely in not sinning.

1712.  Hughes, Spect., No. 467, ¶ 8. Instructive, as well as barely agreeable.

1817.  Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. ix. 717. The only objection … might have been easily removed, by barely prescribing what sort of evidence they ought to receive.

  5.  Only just; hence, not quite, hardly, scarcely, with difficulty.

1494.  Fabyan, Edw. I., an. 1298 (R.). Barely xxviii. persons.

1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 111. Thou fleest that vice not meanly nor barely, But mainely.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Eclog., iii. 157. Their Bones are barely cover’d with their Skin.

1768.  Ellis, in Phil. Trans., LVIII. 77. Some wax that was barely fluid.

1805.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 42. The Speakers … had barely time to get out of his way.

1855.  Bain, Senses & Int., III. ii. § 9. Sounds … so faint as to be barely recognizable.

  6.  Scantily, poorly; baldly.

a. 1535.  More, Wks., 255 (R.). Rehersing the tother syde nakedly and barely … to make it seeme the more slender.

c. 1620.  Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 99. Let him … be barely fed, With … barly-bread.

1807.  Crabbe, Par. Reg., III. 848. Thy coat is thin; why, man, thou’rt barely drest.