Word.ws English Dictionary

we hardly knew ye

we hardly knew ye phrase: lamenting a person or thing gone too soon.

Phrase

we hardly knew ye

  1. Lamenting a person or thing gone too soon.
    • JOE C, WE HARDLY KNEW YE2001, CMJ New Music Monthly, page 6

Origin of we hardly knew ye

Probably from the traditional song "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" (also known as "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye" or "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya"), first published in 1867.

Questions about we hardly knew ye

What does we hardly knew ye mean?
We hardly knew ye means lamenting a person or thing gone too soon.
What part of speech is we hardly knew ye?
We hardly knew ye is a phrase.

Words near we hardly knew ye in the dictionary

  1. we all bleed red
  2. we all make mistakes
  3. we are where we are
  4. we aye
  5. we been knew
  6. we hardly knew ye
  7. we have always been at war with East Asia
  8. we have always been at war with Eastasia
  9. we have always been at war with Eurasia
  10. we haven't got all day
  11. we live in a society

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: we hardly knew ye (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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