Crossword clues for barely
barely
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
barely
adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
barely adequate
▪ The standard of his work is barely adequate.
barely audible (=could only just be heard)
▪ His voice was barely audible above the roar of the crowd.
barely perceptible
▪ The sound was barely perceptible.
barely/hardly sleep (=to not sleep well)
▪ I’d hardly slept the night before the wedding.
barely/hardly visible
▪ The parked car was barely visible in the darkness.
barely/hardly/scarcely above a whisper (=only a little louder than a whisper)
▪ 'Not me', he said, in a voice barely above a whisper.
barely/hardly/scarcely distinguishable
be hardly/barely awake
▪ George, barely awake, came stumbling down the stairs.
hardly/barely remember (=almost not at all)
▪ I can hardly remember him.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
able
▪ Some, because their interests lie elsewhere, may be barely able to read, and their writing may be rudimentary.
▪ The police jeep and Boynes' vehicle were barely able to squeeze past.
▪ Soon she was barely able to walk and she had oxygen cylinders fitted in her bedroom.
▪ Cantor was barely able to utter this single word, so full of suspense, desire, triumph, and some deviousness.
▪ On my final night I tottered back after two shows barely able to put one knee in front of the other.
▪ His eyes were glassy and he seemed barely able to keep them open.
▪ Still shocked and barely able to move; it's lucky to be alive.
▪ By the end of the evening, I was barely able to speak.
adequate
▪ They were clumsy to use, the striking surface barely adequate.
▪ But no one could suppose that the result could be more than barely adequate.
▪ They were barely adequate, but to tell the truth there was not much worth lighting up.
▪ Instead, he wrote a barely adequate, undistinguished letter.
audible
▪ During the succession crisis of 1730 complaints against compulsory service were barely audible even among the lesser nobility.
▪ The music in the restaurant is barely audible.
▪ The sound was tar oft and barely audible.
▪ When Jim acknowledged him, a barely audible groan rippled through the room.
▪ At first, there were faint murmurings, barely audible even within the row, and self-conscious answers from the team leader.
▪ He spoke in a barely audible, husky growl - but it overlay the rumble of a harshly controlled anger.
▪ There was a smattering of light applause and a barely audible groan from the back.
aware
▪ I'd just like to know! she whispered to herself, barely aware of the tears sliding down her cheeks.
▪ Twenty-four hours ago she had been barely aware of his existence; now he seemed to be taking over her life!
▪ He was barely aware of the feeling.
conscious
▪ He was still barely conscious and hadn't the energy to be anything but himself.
▪ When I went to collect them, the sheep seemed barely conscious and the men looked like corpses.
▪ I was barely conscious of anything except the will to live.
▪ As she lay there, barely conscious, she heard the sound of a car engine approaching.
▪ The girl was now writhing and moaning faintly, barely conscious of what was happening to her.
discernible
▪ The shapes in the room were barely discernible.
▪ Amazingly, the contrast between his before and after physique was barely discernible.
▪ They had been conquered by Menelik but among them the Abyssinian imprint was as yet barely discernible, for which I was thankful.
▪ Behind them, a vague wall of audience, the faces barely discernible in bright, damp air.
▪ Beyond the small cell the light from the sconce was barely discernible.
▪ Somehow he'd scored the first small, barely discernible victory.
distinguishable
▪ The track continued along the bottom of the ravine but was barely distinguishable among the tumbled ruins of winter.
▪ His days were barely distinguishable one from another.
▪ Two groupings, with barely distinguishable names, have covered Teheran with photographs of bearded men and a few fully veiled women.
perceptible
▪ He gave a barely perceptible nod as if he had read her mind and applauded her attitude.
▪ This was followed by the barely perceptible rustle of snow crystals hitting the newly exposed portion of the roof.
▪ And slowly, slowly, so gradually that it was barely perceptible, the watchers became aware of a change.
▪ His voice carried a barely perceptible quaver.
▪ These immortal ideas, things barely perceptible are the most precious things of life.
▪ The roses in the garden of the aunts were covered by a thin, barely perceptible layer of dust.
▪ A barely perceptible delay as you gaze through it.
visible
▪ The footprints at sites 8 and 9 disappear very slowly; digestion products are barely visible even 30 minutes after mixing.
▪ At night, the light of candles and hanging lamps rose into the darkness so the high beamed ceiling was barely visible.
▪ The neon lights outside were barely visible through the sheen of condensation coating the inside of the cafe window.
▪ Mostly black on black, its central diamond is traced in faint gold and barely visible.
▪ From base camp the summit was barely visible, so on sighting the route our surprise was all the greater.
▪ Jim kindled the Easter fire, a blue flame at first barely visible above the silver rim of a white bowl.
▪ Up on the plain the driver appears to move arbitrarily between barely visible tracks.
▪ Jean Piaget is barely visible amid piles of clutter.
■ VERB
begin
▪ Inflation did eventually accelerate, and tight-money measures have barely begun to halt it.
▪ The second batch had barely begun to sizzle before the first was already gone.
▪ Hunger is classed as the worst form of malnutrition by the report, because it often cuts short lives barely begun.
▪ But by 1990-30 years later-that process had barely begun.
▪ As yet, the process of liberalizing the public service dimension of electricity has barely begun.
▪ Tacky barely begins to describe your actions in this mess.
▪ The sun had barely begun its climb into the sky when there was a renewed flurry of activity outside the university hospital.
▪ Though she was fifty-four, her career had barely begun.
breathe
▪ The air was so thick with smoke that one could barely breathe!
▪ With the smoke and the dust, he could barely breathe.
▪ The feeling of crisis was growing in him and he felt he could barely breathe.
▪ Afraid and angry because I could barely breathe, I still could not ask her why she had abandoned me.
▪ She longed for it to swallow her. Barely breathing, she closed her eyes.
conceal
▪ The party leadership - Neil Kinnock included - could barely conceal their delight when the vote was declared.
▪ Chutra, naturally, boasted all afternoon and treated my Kutchi friends with barely concealed disdain.
contain
▪ Yesterday the Kilshaws could barely contain their delight after learning of Mr Allen's arrest.
▪ When the imitation worked and the ball went in, I could barely contain myself.
▪ The mirror can barely contain me.
cover
▪ The women, who were on legal aid, were offered an out-of-court settlement which would have barely covered their legal fees.
▪ Add water to barely cover the cucumbers.
▪ But the payments he gets barely cover his expenses.
▪ Meanwhile, in another small saucepan, combine pearl onions and sugar with water to cover barely.
▪ He stepped into it and was dragged away by two rescue workers whose ankles were barely covered by the water.
▪ Add potatoes and enough water to barely cover everything.
▪ They covered barely a third of that distance.
▪ Make sure patties are just barely covered and add water as necessary to replace sauce that has cooked down.
exist
▪ In one sense, these worlds barely exist at all.
get
▪ Dole himself, his voice cracking, can barely get through his words: This is a great honor for Bob Dole.
▪ Then Hideo Nomo could barely get an out.
▪ Derek Bentley could not have taken anybody anywhere; he could barely get himself around.
▪ She barely got enough to eat, so the boys used to pay her with food.
▪ Very soon this rigidity starts to restrict movements and by the time we reach old age we can barely get around.
▪ She barely got a word in.
▪ But the payments he gets barely cover his expenses.
▪ I can barely get by on $ 60, 000 a year.
hear
▪ In the 45-minute journey from Sandton to Pretoria, I barely heard two words spoken.
▪ The flapping noise of windbreakers filled the air; you could barely hear the person next to you speak.
▪ I could just barely hear her yells and shouts, a thin wailing carried on the wind.
▪ As it was, we could barely hear the weather guy over the lousy phone hook-up.
▪ They ran after me, shouting, but I could barely hear because of the noise of the wheelbarrow.
▪ We could barely hear ourselves think.
keep
▪ Just pinch them off and plant in seed compost, which should be kept barely moist in a bright, warm place.
▪ Good grief I can barely keep my thoughts on my duties.
▪ I can barely keep them open.
▪ The latest update to your trusty old word processor can barely keep up with your keystrokes.
▪ Critics could barely keep to the constitutional pretence that the monarch was above political error.
▪ Now in 1997, speaking of the House, they came back, barely keeping their majority and with a wounded leader.
▪ Poor thing, he could barely keep his eyes open half the time, and now he had this skin condition.
know
▪ I had been in the division only about three months, and barely knew what naphtha was.
▪ If he had, he would not be facing deportation to a country he barely knows.
▪ This led them to conclude that they were uncouth, filthy creatures who barely knew how to look after themselves.
▪ He felt a peculiar bond with these men and women, though most of them he barely knew.
▪ To this end it has settled in countries that a few hundred years ago barely knew of the apple's existence.
▪ During the month of hectic packing and training at Fort Benning, I barely knew who they were.
▪ What Fabia ate that lunchtime, though, she barely knew.
▪ He was barely known at all.
look
▪ You could fire a starting pistol next to some and they would barely look up.
▪ Dan and Harry could barely look.
▪ A girl who looked barely older than herself opened it and smiled.
▪ She barely looks old enough to be a candy striper.
▪ Over there is even a young mother pushing her daughter in a stroller and barely looking winded.
▪ At the end the two of them barely looked at each other.
▪ He barely looked at me, but a wave of heat washed over me.
▪ She barely looks 18 but might be 20.
make
▪ What was then so preposterous that it barely made sense in the realm of satire has now miraculously become a reality.
▪ It was so dark he could barely make out the tree line on the distant shore.
▪ Smitten by war, the plains of Kyrenia were barren, and the sponge-divers of the Karpass had made barely a living.
▪ You can barely make out fragments of familiar scenes: a flood, a fire, a burning book.
▪ On the axe was some lettering so small and cramped that Jack could barely make it out.
▪ I could barely make out the men there.
▪ He barely makes enough money to pay his monthly rent.
move
▪ She had barely moved an inch when she was aware of the sound of footsteps.
▪ No one spoke all the way to Acra, and Streeter and Bartlett barely moved.
▪ They are both so badly swollen they barely move.
▪ The salamander, who now barely moved, could never have moved fast.
▪ The fact that he could barely move his wounded arm didn't improve his mood.
▪ I could barely move in it.
▪ The dollar was little changed against the yen during Tokyo trading, and the government bond market barely moved.
▪ The little three-point shooter takes the shots and sinks both of them so neatly that the net barely moves.
notice
▪ She barely noticed it at all as she stood for a few seconds in front of the mirror and pulled the comb through her hair.
▪ I barely noticed the dress she was wearing; what caught my eye was the necklace around her throat.
▪ I barely noticed, only my automatic-pilot reflexes making me slow to within ten miles an hour of the speed limit.
▪ As Connors spoke, I barely noticed our trip up the valley.
▪ Others barely notice the baskets of warm toast, the crisp bacon and popping champagne corks.
▪ I just met her that one time, and I barely noticed her.
reach
▪ On tiptoe, leaning against the rickety lower shelves to keep from toppling, she could barely reach the book.
▪ His rivals barely reach double digits.
▪ Nikitina barely reached the train's engineer in time with the right information.
▪ There was a starchy department head exchanging low fives and complicated hand slaps with a kid who barely reached his knee.
register
▪ He had barely registered this fact when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
▪ Fonda barely registers in an underwritten role.
▪ There was a faint sputtering noise behind, but he barely registered the sound or noticed the flicker.
▪ Until his strong third-place showing in the Iowa caucuses, Alexander barely registered in the polls.
remember
▪ He did not miss his music, and could barely remember his performing days.
▪ But she can barely remember what happened yesterday.
▪ That seems such ages ago, I can barely remember it.
▪ What that had been in those days - power, prophecy, service, love-I could barely remember.
▪ Anne spent 3 months in hospital and can barely remember this royal visit.
▪ I could barely remember what a bed looked like.
see
▪ The lighting was so bad he could barely see where he was going.
▪ It was dark, and I could barely see his face.
▪ We lived in a barracks in the End, barely saw the inside of the tube for ten weeks.
▪ I can barely see him in this moonlight.
▪ Nomatterhow much he wiped at the condensation on the window, he could still barely see what was going on out there.
▪ He could barely see over the stack of hatboxes he was carrying.
▪ I could barely see ten yards because of the glare, and it was no use trying to look far ahead.
▪ Curtis had placed his book bag on the table between us, so that I could barely see him.
seem
▪ The elements in this mixture barely seem to hang together; or rather, radical disjunctions are part of the effect.
▪ When I went to collect them, the sheep seemed barely conscious and the men looked like corpses.
▪ His eyes were glassy and he seemed barely able to keep them open.
▪ At first the momentous events unfolding in Rome seemed barely relevant.
▪ Her career seemed barely more distinguished than that of Charlie McCarthy, the monocled dummy of her ventriloquist father, Edgar Bergen.
speak
▪ We've barely spoken to each other ever since my mum's lived at his place.
▪ When I see Marshall Douglas on the street, I can barely speak to him.
▪ During the first session Susie barely spoke at all.
▪ But when they got back, he barely spoke to them.
▪ Noguchi was to spend four years at the Hights, taking meals, working in the garden, barely speaking.
▪ But when she came up to me after that third seminar I was so shocked and embarrassed that I could barely speak.
stand
▪ He didn't even notice the tannoy, he was already as tired as I was and he could barely stand.
▪ With the breath sucked out of her lungs, she could barely stand upright in the face of the gusts.
▪ The roofs of the towers look as though they would barely stand the rigours of a light breeze, let alone a rain storm.
▪ With his bladder about ready to burst, Gao Yang could barely stand straight, let alone speak.
▪ Buddie had beaten her with a stick until her mouth bled and she could barely stand.
▪ Even though he could barely stand, John made one last desperate bid for survival.
▪ Sead, who had been much more harshly treated than Nijaz, could barely stand as they met yesterday.
start
▪ For all the size of the Byrd discography, we have barely started to discover them.
▪ He had barely started oul and already he was there.
▪ This compares with about £560 million in 1970, when bank credit cards had barely started.
▪ They've barely started dating, and they don't live together.
▪ Indeed, even today, the social history of ordinary ageing in this country has barely started.
▪ The business of disarming the 20,000 Renamo rebels and the 40,000 government troops has barely started.
▪ I believe that it has barely started.
survive
▪ Over the years, however, the tribes have become increasingly marginalised and their rich cultures and traditions have barely survived.
▪ Some of them are barely surviving as it is.
▪ The top pitch had barely survived one day's assault by the ice brigade.
▪ While this was a victory and there was even a small wage increase, the Local had barely survived.
▪ Novy Mir today barely survives with only 100,000 subscribers.
▪ The FRAIhait, an unofficial but virtual Communist party organ, is barely surviving.
▪ After barely surviving her ordeal, the young woman began years of reconstructive surgery.
▪ His lobster-red elbow digs into my arm as he stands to adjust the nozzle. 1 barely survive the flight.
touch
▪ They argue for ways to enhance health care that the Government can barely touch.
▪ I came home from school as I had arrived: fast, my feet barely touching the pavement.
▪ Photography and film were the media of the past 100 years, and the National Portrait Gallery barely touches the subject.
▪ We took another shower and fell asleep, barely touching.
▪ Even barely touching him, she could feel the taut power of the muscles beneath her hand.
▪ Even questions of iconography were barely touched upon.
▪ Luke stopped trying before she did, barely touching her and becoming increasingly uncommunicative.
▪ E-e started kissing her crotch, very gently, his lips barely touching the fabric.
understand
▪ This can lead to unpredictable effects since genes operate in highly complex relationships which are barely understood.
▪ I barely understood any of the cultural references that they took for granted.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ 5000 gallons of water is barely enough to supply a fire truck for five minutes.
▪ Dave barely noticed my new dress.
▪ He had barely a mile to go before finishing the race.
▪ His voice was barely loud enough to be heard at the back of the theatre.
▪ I'd barely gotten home when the phone rang.
▪ She had barely slept 10 minutes before she was woken up again.
▪ She was barely eighteen, and pregnant with her second child.
▪ The class had barely started when the fire bell rang.
▪ The fog was so bad that we could barely see the road in front of us.
▪ The room was furnished barely.
▪ The staff here are barely coping with all the work.
▪ There was barely a gallon of gas in the tank.
▪ They lost, but just barely.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A visit to the site of Expo 92 barely 10 days before the opening left many questions unanswered.
▪ And the stock barely budged from when he took over.
▪ Dole himself, his voice cracking, can barely get through his words: This is a great honor for Bob Dole.
▪ However, I was determined that I would marry him even though I'd only known him for barely six months.
▪ Our tiny apartment, it is true, is barely suited for two people, and certainly not for four.
▪ Robyn could barely think, let alone string coherent words together to form an answer.
▪ We had barely crept any closer to our target.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Barely
Barely \Bare"ly\, adv.
Without covering; nakedly.
Without concealment or disguise.
-
Merely; only.
R. For now his son is duke. W. Barely in title, not in revenue.
--Shak. But just; without any excess; with nothing to spare (of quantity, time, etc.); hence, scarcely; hardly; as, there was barely enough for all; he barely escaped.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
barely
adv. 1 (context degree English) By a small margin. 2 (context degree English) Almost not at all.
WordNet
barely
adv. by a small margin; "they could barely hear the speaker"; "we hardly knew them"; "just missed being hit"; "had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open"; "would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave"- W.B.Yeats [syn: hardly, just, scarcely, scarce]
in a sparse or scanty way; "a barely furnished room" [syn: scantily]
Usage examples of "barely".
Accordingly he had, from time to time, accommodated him with small trifles, which barely served to support his existence, and even for these had taken notes of hand, that he might have a scourge over his head, in case he should prove insolent or refractory.
She had barely objected when he told her of his new affiliation with the Beller people, and she had said nothing in these past ten days, when the pressure of conflicting cross-currents had kept him bottled up within himself, unloving, cold.
Jiri and Neel told Lukien that Cassandra was still alive, though only barely.
Bullets at almost immediate range had barely pierced the tough hide of the alligator they had bagged two nights before.
I myself can barely look back on those twenty years of amatory servility with a full comprehension of the part I have been playing in them.
The sensation was so overwhelming that she barely noticed that Ambrose had changed positions and was now looming over her.
She carried several versions of analysand in working memory, and ran the new programs through the most comprehensive of the group, barely watching the lines of code as they flickered past on the screen.
A cup of tea had more caffeine, and the traces of tryptophan and anandamide were so small they barely registered.
It was barely possible that I was unjustly anathematizing these gentlemen, that, while they were peacefully sleeping, thieves had broken in below.
Berlin, the greatest anatomist and physiologist among my contemporaries, had barely affirmed he had seen a live centaur, I should certainly have been staggered by the weight of an assertion coming from such an authority.
Paran, Spindle, Blend, Antsy, Mallet and Bluepearl sat at the one nearest the blazing hearth, barely managing a word among them.
The selyn flows in the little nerve fibers were shutting down in attrition, and Digen, as he finished, could barely see them to avoid hitting them with the needle.
We barely caressed them, we gazed upon their frayed silver glitter, tapped their hard unsilvered tips, played absently with silver ribbons, and all of us attributed magical power to the slippers: out of the poor roly-poly they had been able to make something ethereal which, thanks to ballet slippers, was capable, day in day out, of going to heaven on foot.
He was slightly surprised to be accosted by an Ervickian in its ept-morph, an age at which barhopping was barely legal even on non-Ervickian worlds.
Although, as a general case, a ship unlucky in falling in with whales continues to cruise after them until she has barely sufficient provisions remaining to take her home, turning round then quietly and making the best of her way to her friends, yet there are instances when even this natural obstacle to the further prosecution of the voyage is overcome by headstrong captains, who, bartering the fruits of their hard-earned toils for a new supply of provisions in some of the ports of Chili or Peru, begin the voyage afresh with unabated zeal and perseverance.