Adverb

(en adverb)

Not occurring at a regular interval; seldom; not often.

We rarely go to the theatre.

Rarely do you ever find an eagle this far up the river.

Unusually well; excellently.

To a rare degree; very.

*, II.32:

others speake very honourably of his life and death, and in all other circumstances declare him to have beene a most excellent and rarely virtuous man.

Adverb

(en-adv)

*1603 , (John Florio), translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays , III.1:

*:And whosoever hath traced mee and nearely looked into my humours, Ile loose a good wager if hee confesse not that there is no rule in their schoole, could, a midde such crooked pathes and divers windings, square and report this naturall motion, and maintaine an apparance of liberty and licence so equall and inflexible […].

With close relation; intimately.

* (John Locke) (1632-1705)

Let that which he learns next be nearly conjoined with what he knows already.

* 1837 , The Dublin University Magazine

She could have joined most comfortably in all their supposings, and suspicions, and doubts, and prognostications, but the honour of the family was too nearly concerned to allow free reins to her tongue.

* 1847 , (Herman Melville), (Omoo)

[H]e was also accounted a man of wealth, and was nearly related to a high chief.

Closely, in close proximity.

*c. 1606 , (William Shakespeare), Macbeth , First Folio 1623, IV.2:

*:I doubt some danger do's approach you neerely .

In close approximation; almost, virtually.

*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)

, chapter=1 citation , passage=She was like a Beardsley Salome , he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.}}

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=Kevin Heng

, title=Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily? , volume=101, issue=3, page=184, magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.}}