This book uncovers properties of focus association with only by examining the interaction between the particle and bare (or “evaluative”) gradable terms. Its empirical building blocks are paradigms involving upward-scalar terms like few and rarely, and their downward-scalar antonyms many and frequently, an area that has not been studied previously in the literature. The empirical claim is that associations of the former type give rise to unexpected readings, and the proposed theoretical explanation draws on the properties of the latter type of association. In presenting the details, the book deconstructs the so-called scalar presupposition of only and derives it from constraints against its vacuous use. This view is then combined with a semantics of the evaluative adjectives many and few to explain why the unavailable (but expected) meanings of the given constructions are unavailable. The attested (but unexpected) readings of only+few/rarely associations are derived from independently motivated LFs in which the degree expressions are existentially closed. Finally, the book provides new findings, based on the core proposal, about only if constructions, and about the interaction between only and other upward-scalar modified numerals (comparatives, and at most). The book thus provides new data and a new theoretical view of the semantic properties of only, and connects it to the semantics of gradable expressions.