Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
You use ~ to say that something is only just true or only just the case.
Anastasia could ~ remember the ride to the hospital...
It was 90 degrees and the air conditioning ~ cooled the room...
His voice was ~ audible...
= scarcely
ADV: ADV before v, ADV group, oft ADV amount
2.
If you say that one thing had ~ happened when something else happened, you mean that the first event was followed immediately by the second.
The Boeing 767 had ~ taxied to a halt before its doors were flung open...
ADV: ADV before v