hardly
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
hardly/ˈhɑːdli/
▶adverb
- 1 scarcely; barely.
■ only with great difficulty.
■ no or not (suggesting surprise at or disagreement with a statement).
- 2 archaic harshly.
usage: Words like hardly, scarcely, and rarely should not be used with negative constructions. Thus, it is correct to say I can hardly wait but wrong to say I can't hardly wait. This is because adverbs like hardly are treated as if they were negatives, and it is a grammatical rule of standard English that double negatives are not acceptable. See also usage at double negative.
'hardly' also found in these Oxford entries:
