Adverb

(-)

Mainly or chiefly; for the most part; usually, generally, on the whole.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly , the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}

(obsolete) To the greatest extent; most.

* 1817 , , Northanger Abbey , [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mDUbXHRIbRIC&dq=northanger+abbey+search+austen&pg=PP1&ots=EDH1Xu36el&sig=J7fVUwXmydAD36S8oLTWv2-ICNk&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA163,M1]:

She was to be their chosen visitor, she was to be for weeks under the same roof with the person whose society she mostly prized [...]!

Adverb

(-)

(degree) By a small margin.

* 1748 , , Oxford University Press (1973), section 8:

It becomes, therefore, no inconsiderable part of science barely to know the different operations of mind,

* 1925 , Walter Anthony and Tom Reed (titles), Rupert Julian (director), The Phantom of the Opera , silent movie

‘It is barely possible you may hear of a ghost, a Phantom of the Opera!’

(degree) Almost not at all.

The plane is so far away now I can barely see it.

Yes, it is barely visible.

* {{quote-news, year=2011

, date=October 23 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=In contrast to what was to come, City were barely allowed any time to settle on the ball in the opening exchanges, with Ashley Young prominent and drawing heavy fouls from Micah Richards and James Milner.}}

(archaic) merely.

* 1661 , , page 29,

Now that fire do's not alwayes barely separate the Elementary parts, but sometimes at least alter also the Ingredients of Bodies