adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
barely/hardly sleep (= to not sleep well )
▪
I’d hardly slept the night before the wedding.
barely/hardly visible
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The parked car was barely visible in the darkness.
barely/hardly/scarcely above a whisper (= only a little louder than a whisper )
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'Not me', he said, in a voice barely above a whisper.
barely/hardly/scarcely distinguishable
be hardly/barely awake
▪
George, barely awake, came stumbling down the stairs.
can hardly bear sth (= find sth very difficult or upsetting to do )
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He was so ashamed that he could hardly bear to look at her.
can hardly breathe
▪
It was so hot that I felt as though I could hardly breathe.
can hardly/scarcely believe sth
▪
I could scarcely believe my luck.
can hardly/scarcely imagine (= find it difficult to imagine )
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He could scarcely imagine what living in such poor conditions must have been like.
could hardly move
▪
The bar was so crowded you could hardly move .
Hardly a day passes without (= there is bad news almost every day )
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Hardly a day passes without more bad news about the economy .
hardly a day/week/month etc goes by
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Hardly a week goes by without some food scare being reported in the media.
hardly expect (= almost not )
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You can hardly expect a child of three to know the difference between right and wrong.
hardly likely (= not very likely )
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It seems hardly likely that she would tell her husband about it.
hardly surprising
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It is hardly surprising that new mothers often suffer from depression.
hardly/barely remember (= almost not at all )
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I can hardly remember him.
sb can hardly refuse (= it would be unreasonable or very difficult to refuse )
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Going out was the last thing I wanted to do, but I could hardly refuse.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
able
▪
Riven was stiff all over, hardly able to stretch himself flat.
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But hardly able to stand such an insult, she returns, mightily testing both his faith and his pocketbook.
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After two days they found him, an exhausted scarecrow of a figure hardly able to stand.
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Ezra said, looking out the window, hardly able to see the water behind his own reflection.
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He paced the dusty road somewhat nervously, yet hardly able to contain the soaring enthusiasm in his heart.
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President Gorbachev demanded and got more and more personal power, although he was hardly able to use it effectively.
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Harriet was weeping, hardly able to speak.
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Her companions returned from it hardly able to stand; she was not much sturdier.
likely
▪
It's hardly likely that the people in charge would want to share the fate of this unfortunate planet.
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It is hardly likely that a vicious thug will wait politely while we ring the police.
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Far from being a jackpot for commuters, the compensation payouts are hardly likely to be worth the flutter.
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It seemed hardly likely she would go to such lengths to prevent her husband from discovering about the Grand Duke Igor.
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It could have been an accident, but I knew that was hardly likely , not with the file missing.
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Although it was hardly likely he would want to seek her out.
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They're hardly likely to have the most tolerant or liberal attitudes are they!
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But the Research Board is hardly likely to get involved in a policing activity.
surprising
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These distortions are the very essence of prejudice, and it is hardly surprising that conflict with Peter had arisen.
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It is hardly surprising that real wages rose less rapidly than productivity and hence that profitability and competitiveness improved.
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If such a three-pronged assault on the ailing Soviet economy has a familiar ring to it, that is hardly surprising .
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It's hardly surprising then, that we get confused by the signals he gives out - now more than ever.
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The overall tone is warm and woody - hardly surprising when you consider the sheer mass of wood involved!
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Orderic's attitude is hardly surprising .
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Given some of the feats he has been demonstrating, it is hardly surprising .
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It is hardly surprising , therefore, that many women returners are confused about what kind of job to look for.
■ VERB
bear
▪
She could hardly bear to listen to them, smiling Clyde, amiable Harvey, fat Marlene.
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Heartrending, Rob thought; he could hardly bear to look.
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The two sides of the equation did not balance and she could hardly bear the implications of that.
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I am so homesick I can hardly bear it.
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At school the next day I hurt so much I could hardly bear to stay sitting down.
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I remember being filled with such excitement I could hardly bear it.
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What that will do to Strachan's nerves hardly bears thinking about.
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He could hardly bear to go on.
believe
▪
Kezia refused a sandwich but she smiled at Annabel, and - I could hardly believe it - Annabel curtsied.
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I could hardly believe what I was saying.
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He who is proclaimed a saint need hardly believe in sainthood.
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If she were to conceive a child in these circumstances she would hardly believe that any part of it was hers.
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Joe could hardly believe his luck to have returned home in such good shape.
blame
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And she could hardly blame him after the disaster of their own brief marriage, Laura now thought wryly.
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A lot of that was dangerously below code, but you could hardly blame people.
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We could hardly blame anyone, students or advisers, if they didn't.
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The authorities had become very protective, and one hardly blamed them.
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Jasper wasn't too keen to start with and you can hardly blame him, but now he's fine about it.
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You could hardly blame them, though, for feeling bewildered from time to time.
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You can hardly blame Dixons for not making this suggestion.
change
▪
When he awoke Lucy was still at his side and the position of the sun had hardly changed .
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Save for the hour, his bedtime had hardly changed over the years.
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But quality teas, the best grade, have hardly changed at around 200p a kilogramme.
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But the workers' production hardly changed at all.
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The top 15 has hardly changed since last season.
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Sales of large-scale data storage devices also increased strongly, while earnings from computer maintenance services hardly changed .
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Since 1589, this house has hardly changed at all.
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The complexion of the game hardly changed with the little-used reserves in.
expect
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One can hardly expect newspapers not to change over four decades!
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I hardly expected to hear anything new.
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You could hardly expect him to regard it as his home.
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He pushed open the screen hardly expecting to have to face the old man alone.
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A woman of Daisy's age would hardly expect to have a man invited for her, Sophia decided.
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One could hardly expect his mood to show much improvement when he did return.
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She did not sleep well again that night, though with Naylor so much in her thoughts she had hardly expected to.
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One could hardly expect the modern media to do otherwise.
hear
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It ought to be so quiet you can hardly hear it.
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I had hardly heard of Wall Street.
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Inside the car the sounds of Technotronic screamed out so loudly that they could hardly hear themselves think.
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When Sonya spoke, I hardly heard what she said.
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He could hardly hear his thoughts above the rasping of his breath.
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The wind is so strong I can hardly hear .
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Zacchaeus could hardly hear because of the row the crowd was making.
know
▪
He spoke very little and we hardly knew him because he was up in front with the engine.
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The rest of the time I hardly knew he was there.
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Ludo swung his club at him with all that strength he hardly knows he possesses.
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But now, for three days and nights, he hardly knew where he was.
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Though they hardly knew my mother, they came to the funeral home and stayed until it closed.
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Lucy and her mother had fallen out years before, and the children hardly knew her.
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Of late, however, her output has been so uneven, one hardly knows what to expect.
look
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She hardly looked to be thirty; she looked beautiful, really beautiful.
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The first couple of times I picked him up he hardly looked at me as we drove home.
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I could hardly look at my dinner when I got home.
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A 55-year-old guy drinking with a woman who looks hardly old enough to drink?
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He seemed preoccupied, hardly looking at her as he got undressed.
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It was so bright I could hardly look at it.
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The apothecary took my money, wrapped up a bottle in blue paper and handed it over, hardly looking at me.
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I adored the girl, but she would hardly look at me, not that I blame her.
matter
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But it hardly matters to most of the city's motorists, who are unlikely to be going anywhere.
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He was finally caught, and it hardly mattered who had caught him.
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This would hardly matter if we still lived in those dim and distant days when nobody took sport too seriously.
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Once networked, it hardly matters whether you are on the floor below, or across town.
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It hardly mattered , since that route led to the docks he had already seen.
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It hardly matters , because examples of bias are there in abundance, and some take fairly systematic forms.
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The question whether they make a picture more or less luminous hardly matters .
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But, for most, the money hardly mattered .
move
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They're hardly moving at all - I can nearly keep up with them just by walking quick.
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But Westerners are hardly moving to Seoul to run them.
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After a few days I started to develop backache in the lumbar region so acute that I could hardly move .
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Huge fans in the basement of Bio2 pushed the air around for some semblance of wind, but it hardly moved pollen.
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Stiff, wet and hungry, Duncan had hardly moved since their arrival.
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Between the two bundled men she could hardly move .
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With all the external guys pegged out it hardly moves in the wind.
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By the end of dinner I could hardly move .
need
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But the old comfort farmer will hardly need the physical object any longer.
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In the tangled politics of the regency such a complication was hardly needed .
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The central concerns of the kinship school hardly need restating.
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It hardly needs saying that Dame Joan is a virtuoso.
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Many managers feel that they understand how to run meetings so well that they hardly need to prepare at all.
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It hardly needs saying that how this story is told will depend upon philosophical argument.
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But such a visit hardly needs a precise purpose to be fruitful.
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How I welcomed Night Duty, I need hardly say.
notice
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It will then be so interested in setting up new territories that it will hardly notice the newcomer.
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They hardly notice when I walk up with the General who has chosen my horse already and his name is Dancing Dan.
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Her head throbbed in rhythm with her bruises, yet she'd hardly noticed any of it downstairs.
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The punditocracy in our country has been so one-sided for so long that we hardly notice the routine tilt anymore.
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I lay there for a long time unhappy and hardly noticing the daily noises of the block assembling round me.
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The sky was darkly overcast, but he hardly noticed the weather.
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I'd hardly noticed them really.
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When she came out to be interviewed earlier that spring, she hardly noticed the weather.
see
▪
Nothing much. Hardly saw each other.
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I had spent all of 1972 campaigning and hardly saw them at all.
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You couldn't hardly see across the room sometimes.
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You hardly saw a car in western Nebraska in those days.
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She ended the first day with a headache so severe she could hardly see .
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Both Hera and Aphrodite bear children, but we hardly see these Goddesses in this capacity.
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I could hardly see , I was crying so much.
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We hardly saw each other, let alone our children.
seem
▪
The Goblin horde seemed hardly diminished.
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Christine under-stands only a little Uchinaguchi, but that hardly seems to matter.
▪
He supposed that Mr Cottle could not be ruled out as a suspect, but he hardly seemed a likely killer.
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But more low-paying jobs hardly seems like an adequate response to the problem.
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In fact, it seems hardly possible.
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Plus the Warriors' new fast-paced offense hardly seems suited for the plodding Marshall.
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For Cranmer, who headed the party of Reform for the next twenty years, the task seemed hardly begun.
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All of this was fine with Jim, though it hardly seemed of major import.
speak
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In fact she hardly spoke for days.
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The lady hardly speaks just for herself.
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But ... she'd hardly spoken to Adam since the morning he'd returned from Starr Hills.
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I could hardly speak Songhai anymore.
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The two officers who had hardly spoken were beginning to fidget on their chairs.
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Once a fine orator, he hardly spoke now.
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Cal and her mum were hardly speaking to each other.
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She walked quickly and hardly spoke to him.
surprise
▪
It is hardly surprising that collections of such photographs hold great personal importance.
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Given the class size of more than 60 it's hardly surprising that the teaching methods have to be quite traditional.
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And it is hardly surprising that she did not think of tongue speaking as a possible exception.
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It was hardly surprising that many among that particular audience immediately recognised him and gathered round.
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It is hardly surprising that it is beginning to go missing.
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Hardly surprising then that budgets were kept low and most films were aimed at the television audience.
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It is, therefore, hardly surprising that they find themselves subjected to a similar neglect.
wait
▪
I could hardly wait to get in those bars.
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She could hardly wait to start.
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I can hardly wait to hear about left temporal lobe epileptics.
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I can hardly wait - I hear some of John's outfits are quite stunning.
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This paper's radio critic can hardly wait .
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Well, I could hardly wait for the fight ahead.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
I don't blame you/you can hardly blame him etc
I need hardly say/tell/remind etc
▪
Birds have never been one of my major interests, I need hardly say.
▪
How I welcomed Night Duty, I need hardly say.
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I need hardly say how heartily I sympathize with the purposes of the Audubon Society.
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I need hardly say that I don't care to have things so.
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I need hardly say that my wife's first impression of Lewis differed somewhat from my own.
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Mr Bawn, I need hardly tell you, is a man of considerable dignity and I would not leave him here.
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Type 4 I need hardly say how glad I am.
hardly ever
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Brent hardly ever calls me anymore.
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We hardly ever go out to eat.
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From that day on Bill and Kath have hardly ever thrown anything away.
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I hardly ever write letters any more.
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Many people think museums make lots of money on big shows, but in truth, they hardly ever break even.
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She gave cheap advice and charge mini-mum fees, hardly ever collecting on past due accounts.
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The charm of it hardly ever fails.
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Theo's occasional complaints, hardly ever voiced directly, were usually muted and so we fail to take note of them.
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Universities have hardly ever been held in lower esteem.
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You know kids who always do their schoolwork and kids who hardly ever do their class and homework assignments.
no sooner/hardly had ... than
▪
Alas, no sooner had he started than he realised it was no longer what he wanted.
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But no sooner had Miriam gone than Harry suddenly returned looking more cheerful than one might have expected.
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No sooner had he gone than one of the cameramen approached.
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No sooner had it begun than the rain seemed to end.
sb can't wait/can hardly wait
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
All these similarities could hardly be due to chance.
▪
He's hardly a world chess champion - you should be able to beat him.
▪
I hardly know the people I'm working with.
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It's hardly surprising he's upset, considering the way you've treated him!
▪
The day had hardly begun, and he felt exhausted already.
▪
They only won 1-0 - hardly a great victory!
▪
This is hardly the ideal time to buy a house.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
At least the socket in the tip of her left forefinger hardly showed.
▪
But I hardly like to tell you about the disaster that befell Angela within the next few minutes.
▪
First off, he decided to attack dueling, which was hardly a threat any longer.
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He found he could hardly open his eyes.
▪
That may be an arresting statement, but it is hardly an exaggerated description of what they did.
▪
With two of the office down with chicken-pox, she hardly had time to think these days, let alone relax.
▪
Women were hardly spared that day, either.
▪
You hardly ever hear of hip-hop guys naming themselves after computer hardware.