scarcely

(r) only a very short time before
- 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
barely, hardly, scarce, just,
(r) almost not
- he hardly ever goes fishing
- he was hardly more than sixteen years old
- they scarcely ever used the emergency generator
hardly,

barely hardly scarce just