what does this mean? "Incarcerated, he was hardly powerless"

Question

I was reading an article about Nelson Mandela, a sentence really confused me : ''Incarcerated, he was hardly powerless"

does that mean he IS in power or not ?
I always think the word '' hardly '' means '' almost not '',
so this really confused me.

Blue Jay · Accepted Answer

In this case it means he was not powerless while he was incarcerated.

Anonymous · Answer

thank you

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousDoes that mean he IS in power or not?

It has nothing to do with being "in power", e.g., as a head of state. It has to do with having power.
_____________

"... he was hardly powerless" can be paraphrased variously as

... he was far from being powerless
... he was far from powerless
... he was not at all powerless

CJ

what does this mean? "Incarcerated, he was hardly powerless"

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