How to Use scarcely in a Sentence

scarcely

adverb

• This is scarcely a time to laugh.
• I could scarcely tell them they were wrong.
• Scarcely a day goes by when they don't see or talk to each other.
• He could scarcely control his joy.
• He had scarcely enough money.
• Sleet turned to snow as the sun rose, with scarcely a car on the road.
  — Gerald Herbert and David J. Phillip, Los Angeles Times, 21 Jan. 2025
• In the next were black storks, which have been scarcely present since the Middle Ages.
  — Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2021
• The table was the object of tourist lore, scarcely a few decades old.
  — Aatish Taseer, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2023
• The rest of her words could scarcely be heard because of all the clapping.
  — NBC News, 8 Nov. 2019
• Churilyana, 90, has scarcely left her apartment for the past five years.
  — Washington Post, 7 Mar. 2022
• But the truth is, you are scarcely allowed the freedom to turn your brain off.
  — Sarah Bregel, Parents, 3 July 2024
• The smallest species are scarcely more than an inch long and the largest may reach more than two feet.
  — New York Times, 9 July 2021
• The guys don’t make sense as friends, which scarcely matters at that point.
  — Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 2 July 2019
• In the city, scanning the skies showed only clouds, and gave scarcely a glimpse of the moon, if it could be seen at all.
  — Martin Weil, Washington Post, 30 Sep. 2023
• To be fair, Leto is scarcely alone in his quest for excess.
  — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 28 Nov. 2021
• And for a while, each couple scarcely amounts to more than a broad stroke and a conflict.
  — Natalia Winkelman, IndieWire, 27 Jan. 2025
• Democrats can scarcely hide their sense of panic and dread.
  — The Editors, National Review, 28 June 2024
• The apartment, scarcely altered since, is a shrine to Pesce.
  — Matthew Schneier, Curbed, 14 Sep. 2021
• The debate inside the A.C.L.U. proved scarcely less charged.
  — New York Times, 6 June 2021
• For many, the credentials of the 13-horse field scarcely mattered.
  — Liz Clarke, The Seattle Times, 18 May 2019
• The notes had scarcely stopped when a bull answered from dense pines far below.
  — Bruce Brady, Outdoor Life, 12 Sep. 2024
• This scarcely ranks on the list of important things, even when the world hasn't been turned inside-out.
  — Dominic Armato, azcentral, 4 May 2020
• How to write the biography of a man who scarcely lived?
  — Benjamin Kunkel, Harper's Magazine, 26 Oct. 2021
• The cast is scarcely recognizable and it was made with a slim crew.
  — Lindsey Bahr, Star Tribune, 10 Mar. 2021
• Its height is scarcely three feet, upon a base of more than thirty.
  — Jeff Suess, The Enquirer, 8 May 2022
• And some of them have scarcely been heard about outside Israel.
  — Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 2 May 2024
• But there could scarcely have been a less opportune moment to press the point.
  — New York Times, 22 Apr. 2021
• In logistic terms, what such a mission would look like has scarcely changed since the 1950s.
  — David W. Brown, Scientific American, 27 Jan. 2022
• The maps show that, as recently as 1800, London had scarcely spread to south of the River Thames.
  — Washington Post, 12 Feb. 2021
• The latter number is scarcely one-tenth of 1% of the overall budget, which makes one wonder how Newsom’s budget writers could calculate it so precisely.
  — Dan Walters, The Mercury News, 30 Jan. 2025

Last Updated: 25 Feb 2025