What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Herd vs Hardly - What's the difference?

herd | hardly |

As a noun herd

is stove, cooker.

As an adverb hardly is

(manner|obsolete) firmly, vigorously, with strength or exertion.

As an interjection hardly is

not really.

herd

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) herde, heerde, heorde, from (etyl) hierd, .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.
  • * 1768, ,
  • The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.
  • Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company.
  • * 2007, J. Michael Fay, Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma , National Geographic (March 2007), 47,
  • Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd .
  • A crowd, a mass of people; now usually pejorative: a rabble.
  • * Dryden
  • But far more numerous was the herd of such / Who think too little and who talk too much.
  • * Coleridge
  • You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.
  • Sheep herd on many hills.
  • To associate; to ally one's self with, or place one's self among, a group or company.
  • (rfdate) I’ll herd among his friends, and seem One of the number. Addison.

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) hirde, (hierde), from (etyl) . Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals; a herdsman.
  • * 2000 , Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces , Bloomsbury 2002, p. 38:
  • Any talent which gives a good new thing to others is a miracle, but commentators have thought it extra miraculous that England's first known poet was an illiterate herd .
    Derived terms
    * bearherd * cowherd * goatherd * gooseherd * hogherd * horseherd * neatherd * oxherd * swanherd * swineherd * vaxherd

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (Scotland) To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
  • To form or put into a herd.
  • I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away.

    See also

    * * drove * gather * muster * round up * ride herd on English collective nouns ----

    hardly

    English

    Adverb

    (en-adv)
  • (manner, obsolete) Firmly, vigorously, with strength or exertion.
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.148:
  • Let him hardly be possest with an honest curiositie to search out the nature and causes of all things.
  • (manner, archaic) Harshly, severely.
  • With difficulty.
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.234:
  • And what gentle flame soever doth warme the heart of young virgins, yet are they hardly drawne to leave and forgoe their mothers, to betake them to their husbands.
  • * 1977 , , The Honourable Schoolboy , Folio Society 2010, p. 40:
  • While in Chelsea, Anne Smiley pined, taking very hardly to her unaccustomed role of wife abandoned.
  • (degree) Barely, only just, almost not.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 3, author=David Ornstein, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Macc Tel-Aviv 1-2 Stoke , passage=With this the second of three games in seven days for Stoke, it was hardly surprising to see nine changes from the side that started against Newcastle in the Premier League on Monday.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-06, volume=408, issue=8843, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The rise of smart beta , passage=Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.}}

    Usage notes

    In the sense "barely", it is grammatically a negative word. It therefore collocates with ever rather than never. * Compare example sentence with I almost never watch television

    Synonyms

    * barely, just, only just, scarcely

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • Not really.
  • I think the Beatles are a really overrated band. &
  • x2015; Hardly !