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hard-bitten

[ hahrd-bit-n ]

/ ˈhɑrdˈbɪt n /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR hard-bitten ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

tough; stubborn.

conditioned by battle or struggle: a hard-bitten army.

grim or severe in judgment or attitude: a hard-bitten old teacher.

hard-boiled(defs 2, 3).

Origin of hard-bitten

First recorded in 1775–85

Words nearby hard-bitten

hard yards, hard-and-fast, hard-ass, hard-asset, hard-bill, hard-bitten, hard-boil, hard-boiled, hard-case, hard-coated, hard-core

Example sentences from the Web for hard-bitten

His gift for salty language impressed even the most hard-bitten grunts.

The Story of the American Journalists Who Landed on D-Day |Timothy M. Gay |June 6, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
Hard-bitten conservatives might be relieved, then, to find their misgivings about the president reflected by the left as well.

Obama's New Broken Promise |Samuel P. Jacobs |June 26, 2010 |DAILY BEAST
Even the most hard-bitten Chicagoans have to see very good times on the horizon.

Who You Calling Second City? |Scott Turow |October 31, 2008 |DAILY BEAST
But even the most hard-bitten Chicagoans have to see very good times on the horizon.

Who You Calling Second City? |Scott Turow |October 31, 2008 |DAILY BEAST

There was a lean, hard-bitten colonel of the American liaison force in Greece.

The Invaders |William Fitzgerald Jenkins
There was the usual jostling crowd of hard-bitten Earth miners, and of the metal people who come to lose their loneliness.

B-12's Moon Glow |Charles A. Stearns
They were armed and he knew by their hard-bitten faces that it was another party of jumpers.

Silver and Gold |Dane Coolidge
There is no gainsaying that the Solomons are a hard-bitten bunch of islands.

South Sea Tales |Jack London
I was going to add women, but then I thought of how hard-bitten little Alice would look beside the dream creatures I had in mind.

The Night of the Long Knives |Fritz Reuter Leiber

British Dictionary definitions for hard-bitten

hard-bitten

adjective

tough and realistic