bare

The word "bare" is an adjective that means empty or uncovered.

• Don’t go out into the cold with a bare head. Make sure you wear a hat that covers your ears.
• Victoria likes to walk around the house in her bare feet. (no shoes or socks)
• The cupboards are bare. We need to go grocery shopping. (cupboards = cabinets where food is stored.)
• Have you ever slept outside on the bare ground?
• Pictures of bare naked women made the young man blush.
• The brave hunter killed the tiger with his bare hands. (He didn’t use any weapons.)

The adverb form of "bare" is "barely." It means not much:

• I can barely hear you.
• There’s barely any snow on the ground.
• We barely ever eat red meat. Usually we eat fish. (It’s better to use "hardly" instead of "barely" in this sentence.)
• The woman was barely alive when emergency workers reached her.

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January 28, 2013