adverb
Etymology: Middle English hardely, hardly, from Old English heardlīce, adverb of heardlīc severe, bold, from heard hard + -līc -ly (adjective suffix)
1. : with force or energy : violently , vigorously
turquoise … earrings jangling down hardly on diminutive gold chains — Osbert Sitwell
2.
a. : in a severe or harsh manner : roughly , unfairly , unpleasantly , badly
things may go hardly with us … before the war is over — Nevil Shute
b. : with great or excessive grief or resentment
had not believed that he would take it so hardly
3. : in a difficult manner : by hard work or struggle : with trouble : painfully
the right to play croquet had been a hardly won concession — Osbert Lancaster
wondering why the lesson had to be learned so hardly — Kamala Markandaya
means of existence wrung so hardly from the soil — Sir Winston Churchill
4. : only just : not quite : not altogether : barely , scarcely
men who were hardly literate
why, I hardly know him
hardly knew what to say
this is hardly the time to discuss such matters
— sometimes used in nonstandard construction with a superfluous negative
horse thieves was so bad that a man couldn't hardly keep a … horse — J.F.Dobie