Definition of hardly

"hardly" in the adverb sense

1. barely, hardly, just, scarcely, scarce

only a very short time before

"we hardly knew them"

"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

2. hardly, scarcely, barely, scarce

almost not

"he hardly ever goes fishing"

"he was scarce sixteen years old"

"they scarcely ever used the emergency generator"

"I can hardly hear what she is saying"

"she barely seemed to notice him"

"we were so far back in the theater, we could barely read the subtitles"

3. hard, hardly

slowly and with difficulty

"prejudices die hard"

"he was so dizzy he could hardly stand up straight"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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Quotations for hardly

Old sores are hardly cured. [ Proverb ]

The rich man's son inherits cares;
The bank may break, the factory burn,
A breath may burst his bubble shares,
And soft, white hands could hardly earn
A living that would serve his turn. [ Lowell ]

Things hardly attained, are long retained. [ Proverb ]

Trade hardly deems the busy day begun,
Till his keen eye along the sheet has run;
The blooming daughter throws her needle by.
And reads her schoolmate's marriage with a sigh;
While the grave mother puts her glasses on.
And gives a tear to some old crony gone.
The preacher, too, his Sunday theme lays down,
To know what last new folly fills the town;
Lively or sad, life's meanest, mightiest things.
The fate of fighting cocks, or fighting kings. [ Sprague ]

Who walks through fire will hardly heed the smoke. [ Alfred Tennyson ]

He that lives a knave will hardly die an honest man. [ Proverb ]

A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong. [ Ecclus ]

Novelty has charms that our minds can hardly withstand. [ Thackeray ]

Compulsion hardly restores right; love yields all things. [ Jane Porter ]

But now so wise and wary was the knight
By trial of his former harms and cares,
That he descry'd and shunned still his slight;
The fish, that once was caught, new bait will hardly bite. [ Spenser ]

Errors in the first concoction, are hardly mended in the second. [ Proverb ]

The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase. [ Yogi Berra ]

People hardly ever do anything in anger, of which they do not repent. [ Richardson ]

A little rain will fill the lily's cup, which hardly moists the field. [ Edwin Arnold ]

I hardly know so true a mark of a little mind as the servile imitation of others. [ Lord Greville ]

An engagement is hardly a serious one that has not been broken off at least once. [ Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest ]

Love concedes in a moment what we can hardly attain by effort after years of toil. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

I shall leave the world without regret, for it hardly contains a single good listener. [ Fontenelle ]

There are faces so fluid with expression that we can hardly find what the mere features are. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not. [ Fielding ]

Sorrows are like thunder-clouds, - in the distance they look black, over our heads hardly gray. [ Richter ]

Man can make himself master over much, hardly can necessity and length of time subdue his spirit. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has but one talent for a genius. [ Arthur Helps ]

The modern sympathy with invalids is morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. [ Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest ]

Flowers are sent to do God's work in unrevealed paths, and to diffuse influence by channels that we hardly suspect. [ Henry Ward Beecher ]

In analyzing the character of heroes. It is hardly possible to separate altogether the share of fortune from their own. [ Hallam ]

He who loves not books before he comes to thirty years of age will hardly love them enough afterward to understand them. [ Earl of Clarendon ]

A man, if he be active and energetic, can hardly fail also, be he never so selfish, of benefiting the general public interest. [ Benjamin F. Butler ]

There is hardly a person in the House of Commons worth painting, though many of them would be better for a little whitewashing. [ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey ]

There can hardly, I believe, be imagined a more desirable pleasure than that of praise unmixed with any possibility of flattery. [ Steele ]

There are some men formed with feelings so blunt that they can hardly be said to be awake during the whole course of their lives. [ Burke ]

The pure in heart are slow to credit calumnies, because they hardly comprehend what motives can be inducements to the alleged crimes. [ Jane Porter ]

The covetous man is like a camel with a great hunch on his back; heaven's gate must be made higher and broader, or he will hardly get in. [ Thomas Adams ]

The disesteem and contempt of others is inseparable from pride. It is hardly possible to overvalue ourselves but by undervaluing our neighbors. [ Clarendon ]

A man who is not able to make a bow to his own conscience every morning is hardly in a condition to respectfully salute the world at any other time of the day. [ Douglas Jerrold ]

The painter is, as to the execution of his work, a mechanic; but as to his conception, his spirit, and design, he is hardly below even the poet in liberal art. [ Steele ]

Everybody takes pleasure in returning small obligations; many go so far as to acknowledge moderate ones; but there is hardly anyone who does not repay great obligations with ingratitude. [ Rochefoucauld ]

To guide scoundrels by love is a method that will not hold together; hardly for the flower of men will love do; and for the sediment and scoundrelism of them it has not even a chance to do. [ Carlyle ]

The best manner of avenging ourselves is by not resembling him who has injured us; and it is hardly possible for one man to be more unlike another than he that forbears to avenge himself of wrong is to him who did the wrong. [ Jane Porter ]

After the pleasure of possessing books there is hardly anything more pleasant than that of speaking of them, and of communicating to the public the innocent richness of thought which we have acquired by the culture of letters. [ Nodier ]

Our opinions are not our own, but in the power of sympathy. If a person tells us a palpable falsehood, we not only dare not contradict him, but we dare hardly disbelieve him to his face. A lie boldly uttered has the effect of truth for the instant. [ Hazlitt ]

We really cannot see what equanimity there is in jerking a lacerated carp out of the water by the jaws, merely because it has not the power of making a noise; for we presume that the most philosophic of anglers would hardly delight in catching shrieking fish. [ Leigh Hunt ]

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery, but the friction. Fear secretes acids; but love and trust are sweet juices. [ Beecher ]

Own or Confess? The verb to own means to possess, but it has borrowed the additional and objectionable meaning of to confess, to acknowledge; as, He owned his crime. A man owns a house, but confesses a larceny, or a murder, neither of which offenses is hardly susceptible of ownership. [ Pure English, Hackett And Girvin, 1884 ]

If our eloquence be directed above the heads of our hearers, we shall do no execution. By pointing our arguments low, we stand a chance of hitting their hearts as well as their heads. In addressing angels, we could hardly raise our eloquence too high; but we must remember that men are not angels. [ Colton ]

Among the smaller duties of life, I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due. Reputation is one of the prizes for which men contend: it is, as Mr. Burke calls it, the cheap defense and ornament of nations. It produces more labor and more talent than twice the wealth of a country could ever rear up. It is the coin of genius, and it is the imperious duty of every man to bestow it with the most scrupulous justice and the wisest economy. [ Sydney Smith ]

Consistent characters are those which in social intercourse are easy, sure, and gentle. We do not clash with them, and they are never wanting nor contradictory to themselves; their stability incites confidence, their frankness induces self-surrendering openness. We feel at ease with them, we are not offended at their superiority, doubtless we admire them less, but we also hardly dream of feeling envious of them, and they seem almost to disdain malignity by the peaceful influence of their presence. [ Degerando ]

Morals are an acquirement - like music, like a foreign language, like piety, poker, paralysis - no man is born with them. I wasn't myself, I started poor. I hadn't a single moral. There is hardly a man in this house that is poorer than I was then. Yes, I started like that - the world before me, not a moral in the slot. Not even an insurance moral. I can remember the first one I ever got. I can remember the landscape, the weather, the - I can remember how everything looked. It was an old moral, an old second-hand moral, all out of repair, and didn't fit, anyway. But if you are careful with a thing like that, and keep it in a dry place, and save it for processions, and Chautauquas, and World's Fairs, and so on, and disinfect it now and then, and give it a fresh coat of whitewash once in a while, you will be surprised to see how well she will last and how long she will keep sweet, or at least inoffensive. When I got that mouldy old moral, she had stopped growing, because she hadn't any exercise; but I worked her hard, I worked her Sundays and all. Under this cultivation she waxed in might and stature beyond belief, and served me well and was my pride and joy for sixty-three years; then she got to associating with insurance presidents, and lost flesh and character, and was a sorrow to look at and no longer competent for business. She was a great loss to me. Yet not all loss. I sold her - ah, pathetic skeleton, as she was - I sold her to Leopold, the pirate King of Belgium; he sold her to our Metropolitan Museum, and it was very glad to get her, for without a rag on, she stands 57 feet long and 16 feet high, and they think she's a brontosaur. Well, she looks it. They believe it will take nineteen geological periods to breed her match. [ Mark Twain, Seventieth Birthday speech ]

hardly in Scrabble®

The word hardly is playable in Scrabble®, no blanks required.

Scrabble® Letter Score: 13

Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays In The Letters hardly:

HARDLY
(51)
HARDLY
(51)
 

All Scrabble® Plays For The Word hardly

HARDLY
(51)
HARDLY
(51)
HARDLY
(45)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDLY
(39)
HARDLY
(39)
HARDLY
(34)
HARDLY
(34)
HARDLY
(34)
HARDLY
(34)
HARDLY
(30)
HARDLY
(30)
HARDLY
(28)
HARDLY
(28)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(23)
HARDLY
(23)
HARDLY
(19)
HARDLY
(18)
HARDLY
(18)
HARDLY
(18)
HARDLY
(17)
HARDLY
(16)
HARDLY
(15)
HARDLY
(15)
HARDLY
(15)
HARDLY
(14)

The 200 Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays For Words Using The Letters In hardly

HARDLY
(51)
HARDLY
(51)
HARDY
(48)
HARDY
(48)
HYDRA
(48)
HYDRA
(48)
HARDLY
(45)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDY
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDY
(40)
HYDRA
(40)
HARDY
(40)
HARDLY
(39)
HARDLY
(39)
HARDY
(39)
LARDY
(39)
HYDRA
(39)
HYDRA
(39)
YARD
(36)
HARDY
(36)
HYDRA
(36)
HYDRA
(36)
HARDY
(36)
HYDRA
(36)
HARDY
(36)
YALD
(36)
HARD
(36)
LADY
(36)
DRAY
(36)
HARDLY
(34)
HARDLY
(34)
LARDY
(34)
HARDLY
(34)
HARDLY
(34)
LARDY
(33)
HYDRA
(32)
HYDRA
(32)
HARDY
(32)
HARDY
(32)
HARDY
(32)
HARDY
(32)
HARDLY
(30)
HARD
(30)
LARDY
(30)
YARD
(30)
LARDY
(30)
YALD
(30)
DRAY
(30)
HARDLY
(30)
HYDRA
(28)
HARDLY
(28)
HARDLY
(28)
HARDY
(28)
YAH
(27)
LARDY
(27)
YAH
(27)
HAY
(27)
HAY
(27)
LADY
(27)
YAH
(27)
HAY
(27)
LARDY
(27)
LARDY
(27)
LARDY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
LARDY
(26)
HYDRA
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HYDRA
(26)
DRAY
(24)
YALD
(24)
HARDY
(24)
YALD
(24)
YALD
(24)
HARDY
(24)
HARDY
(24)
HARDY
(24)
HARDY
(24)
LADY
(24)
YALD
(24)
LADY
(24)
HARD
(24)
ARYL
(24)
HARD
(24)
LADY
(24)
LADY
(24)
HARD
(24)
HARD
(24)
ARYL
(24)
LADY
(24)
YALD
(24)
YARD
(24)
HYDRA
(24)
HYDRA
(24)
YARD
(24)
DRAY
(24)
YARD
(24)
DRAY
(24)
HYDRA
(24)
YARD
(24)
HYDRA
(24)
DRAY
(24)
DRAY
(24)
YARD
(24)
HARD
(24)
HYDRA
(24)
HARDLY
(23)
HARDLY
(23)
HYDRA
(22)
LARDY
(22)
DRY
(21)
ARYL
(21)
DRY
(21)
DAY
(21)
ARYL
(21)
HAD
(21)
ARYL
(21)
DAY
(21)
DAY
(21)
ARYL
(21)
LARD
(21)
DRY
(21)
HAD
(21)
HAD
(21)
DRAY
(20)
YARD
(20)
HARD
(20)
LARDY
(20)
YALD
(20)
HARDY
(20)
LARDY
(20)
HYDRA
(20)
LARDY
(19)
HARDLY
(19)
YAR
(18)
YAH
(18)
YAH
(18)
LAY
(18)
HAY
(18)
YAR
(18)
HARDLY
(18)
YAH
(18)
HARDLY
(18)
HYDRA
(18)
YAR
(18)
HAY
(18)
HAY
(18)
HARDLY
(18)
RAY
(18)
LAY
(18)
LARDY
(18)
LARD
(18)
RAY
(18)
LARDY
(18)
RAY
(18)
LAY
(18)
LARDY
(18)
LARDY
(18)
LADY
(18)
LARDY
(18)
YAH
(17)
HARDY
(17)
HYDRA
(17)
HARDY
(17)
HYDRA
(17)
HAY
(17)
YAH
(17)
YAH
(17)
HARDLY
(17)
HAY
(17)
HAY
(17)
LADY
(16)
YALD
(16)
LADY
(16)
YARD
(16)
YARD
(16)
HYDRA
(16)
HARDY
(16)
DRAY
(16)
YARD
(16)
HYDRA
(16)
YALD
(16)
YALD
(16)
LADY
(16)
LADY
(16)
DRAY
(16)
DRAY
(16)
ARYL
(16)
LADY
(16)
HARD
(16)
ARYL
(16)
HARD
(16)

hardly in Words With Friends™

The word hardly is playable in Words With Friends™, no blanks required.

Words With Friends™ Letter Score: 12

Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Play In The Letters hardly:

HARDLY
(66)
 

All Words With Friends™ Plays For The Word hardly

HARDLY
(66)
HARDLY
(60)
HARDLY
(54)
HARDLY
(54)
HARDLY
(48)
HARDLY
(48)
HARDLY
(48)
HARDLY
(48)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDLY
(36)
HARDLY
(36)
HARDLY
(36)
HARDLY
(36)
HARDLY
(32)
HARDLY
(30)
HARDLY
(30)
HARDLY
(28)
HARDLY
(28)
HARDLY
(28)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HARDLY
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
HARDLY
(22)
HARDLY
(20)
HARDLY
(20)
HARDLY
(19)
HARDLY
(18)
HARDLY
(18)
HARDLY
(17)
HARDLY
(17)
HARDLY
(17)
HARDLY
(16)
HARDLY
(16)
HARDLY
(16)
HARDLY
(16)
HARDLY
(15)
HARDLY
(15)
HARDLY
(15)
HARDLY
(15)
HARDLY
(15)
HARDLY
(14)
HARDLY
(14)
HARDLY
(14)
HARDLY
(13)
HARDLY
(13)
HARDLY
(12)

The 200 Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays Using The Letters In hardly

HARDLY
(66)
HARDLY
(60)
HARDLY
(54)
HARDLY
(54)
HARDLY
(48)
HARDY
(48)
HARDY
(48)
HARDLY
(48)
HARDLY
(48)
HARDLY
(48)
HYDRA
(48)
HYDRA
(48)
LARDY
(45)
HARDY
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
LADY
(42)
YALD
(42)
HARDLY
(42)
HARDY
(40)
HYDRA
(40)
DRAY
(39)
HARD
(39)
LARDY
(39)
LARDY
(39)
YARD
(39)
HARDLY
(36)
LADY
(36)
HYDRA
(36)
HARDLY
(36)
HYDRA
(36)
HARDLY
(36)
HARDY
(36)
YALD
(36)
LARDY
(36)
HARDLY
(36)
DRAY
(33)
HARD
(33)
LARDY
(33)
ARYL
(33)
YARD
(33)
HARDY
(32)
HYDRA
(32)
HARDY
(32)
HARDLY
(32)
HARDY
(30)
LARDY
(30)
HYDRA
(30)
LARD
(30)
LARD
(30)
HARDY
(30)
HYDRA
(30)
HARDY
(30)
HARDLY
(30)
HARDLY
(30)
HYDRA
(30)
HARDLY
(28)
HARDLY
(28)
HARDLY
(28)
LARDY
(27)
LARDY
(27)
LARDY
(27)
ARYL
(27)
HARDY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
LARDY
(26)
HARDY
(26)
HARDLY
(26)
HYDRA
(26)
HYDRA
(26)
LARDY
(24)
HARDY
(24)
YALD
(24)
YALD
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
HYDRA
(24)
LADY
(24)
LADY
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
LADY
(24)
HARDLY
(24)
LADY
(24)
YALD
(24)
YALD
(24)
LARDY
(22)
HARDY
(22)
LADY
(22)
HARDY
(22)
LARDY
(22)
HYDRA
(22)
YALD
(22)
HARDLY
(22)
HYDRA
(22)
DRAY
(21)
YAH
(21)
YARD
(21)
YAH
(21)
ARYL
(21)
YAH
(21)
YARD
(21)
HARD
(21)
HAY
(21)
DRAY
(21)
YARD
(21)
HARD
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HARD
(21)
HARD
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HAY
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ARYL
(21)
ARYL
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YARD
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DRAY
(21)
DRAY
(21)
ARYL
(21)
HAY
(21)
YARD
(20)
HARDY
(20)
HARDLY
(20)
HYDRA
(20)
LADY
(20)
HARDY
(20)
HARD
(20)
HARDY
(20)
HARDLY
(20)
HARDY
(20)
YALD
(20)
DRAY
(20)
HYDRA
(20)
HYDRA
(20)
HYDRA
(20)
LARDY
(20)
HYDRA
(20)
HARDY
(20)
HYDRA
(20)
LARDY
(19)
HARDLY
(19)
YAH
(19)
HARDY
(19)
HAY
(19)
HARDY
(19)
LARDY
(18)
HARD
(18)
LARD
(18)
LARDY
(18)
LARDY
(18)
HYDRA
(18)
LARDY
(18)
HARDLY
(18)
YARD
(18)
DAY
(18)
DAY
(18)
DAY
(18)
HARDLY
(18)
LARD
(18)
HYDRA
(18)
YALD
(18)
DRAY
(18)
LARDY
(18)
ARYL
(18)
HAD
(18)
LARD
(18)
HARDY
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HAD
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LAY
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DRY
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LAY
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HAD
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LARD
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DRY
(18)
HARDY
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DRY
(18)
LAY
(18)
LARDY
(17)
HARDLY
(17)
LARDY
(17)
HARDLY
(17)
HARDLY
(17)
HYDRA
(17)
LADY
(16)
HYDRA
(16)
LADY
(16)
LADY
(16)
HYDRA
(16)
HARDLY
(16)
LARD
(16)
LADY
(16)
LARD
(16)
HARDY
(16)
HARDY
(16)
LADY
(16)
LADY
(16)
HARDLY
(16)
YALD
(16)
HARDLY
(16)
YALD
(16)
HAD
(16)
LAY
(16)
ARYL
(16)

Words within the letters of hardly

2 letter words in hardly (7 words)

3 letter words in hardly (9 words)

4 letter words in hardly (7 words)

5 letter words in hardly (3 words)

6 letter words in hardly (1 word)

hardly + 1 blank (1 word)

hardly + 2 blanks (2 words)

Words containing the sequence hardly

Words that start with hardly (1 word)

Words with hardly in them (1 word)

Words that end with hardly (1 word)

Word Growth involving hardly

Shorter words in hardly

ar hard

ha hard

Longer words containing hardly

(No longer words found)