hard

[ hahrd ]

/ hɑrd /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR hard ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective, hard·er, hard·est.

not soft; solid and firm to the touch; unyielding to pressure and impenetrable or almost impenetrable.

firmly formed; tight: a hard knot.

difficult to do or accomplish; fatiguing; troublesome: a hard task.

difficult or troublesome with respect to an action, situation, person, etc.: hard to please; a hard time.

difficult to deal with, manage, control, overcome, or understand: a hard problem.

involving a great deal of effort, energy, or persistence: hard labor; hard study.

performing or carrying on work with great effort, energy, or persistence: a hard worker.

vigorous or violent in force; severe: a hard rain; a hard fall.

bad; unendurable; unbearable: hard luck.

oppressive; harsh; rough: hard treatment.

austere; severe: a hard winter; the hard times of the Great Depression.

harsh or severe in dealing with others: a hard master.

difficult to explain away; undeniable: hard facts.

that can be verified; factual, as distinguished from speculation or hearsay: hard information.

harsh or unfriendly; resentful; severe; bitter: hard feelings; hard words.

of stern judgment or close examination; searching: a hard look.

lacking delicacy or softness; not blurred or diffused; clear and distinct; sharp; harsh: a hard line; a hard, bright light; hard features; a hard face.

(of a photograph) contrasty.

severe or rigorous in terms: a hard bargain.

sternly realistic; dispassionate; unsentimental: a hard, practical man; a hard view of life.

incorrigible; disreputable; tough: a hard character.

Scot. and North England. niggardly; stingy.

in coins or paper money as distinguished from checks, securities, promissory notes, or other negotiable instruments).

(of paper money or a monetary system) supported by sufficient gold reserves and easily convertible into the currency of a foreign nation.

(of money) scarce or available at high interest rates: a hard loan.

denoting assets with intrinsic value, as gold, silver, or diamonds.

(of alcoholic beverages)

containing more than 22.5 percent alcohol by volume, as whiskey and brandy as opposed to beer and wine.
strong because of fermentation; intoxicating: hard cider.

(of wine) tasting excessively of tannin.

(of an illicit narcotic or drug) known to be physically addictive, as opium, morphine, or cocaine.

(of water) containing mineral salts that interfere with the action of soap.

(of bread and baked goods)

having a firm, crisp crust or texture: hard rolls.
stale or tough.

(of a fabric) having relatively little nap; smooth: Silk is a harder fabric than wool or cotton.

(of the landing of a rocket or space vehicle) executed without decelerating: a hard landing on the moon. Compare soft(def 28).

(of a missile base) equipped to launch missiles from underground silos.

(of a missile) capable of being launched from an underground silo.

Military. being underground and strongly protected from nuclear bombardment.

Agriculture. noting wheats with high gluten content, milled for a bread flour as contrasted with pastry flour.

Phonetics.

fortis.
(of c and g) pronounced as (k) in come and (g) in go, rather than as in cent, cello, suspicion, gem, or beige.
(of consonants in Slavic languages) not palatalized.Compare soft(def 26).

(in the making of rope) noting a lay having a considerable angle to the axis of the rope; short.

Physics. (of a beam of particles or photons) having relatively high energy: hard x-rays. Compare soft(def 29).

(of the penis) erect.

adverb, hard·er, hard·est.

with great exertion; with vigor or violence; strenuously: to work hard; to try hard.

earnestly, intently, or critically: to look hard at a thing.

harshly or severely.

so as to be solid, tight, or firm: frozen hard.

with strong force or impact: She tripped and came down hard on her back.

in a deeply affected manner; with genuine sorrow or remorse: She took it very hard when they told her of his death.

closely; immediately: Failure and defeat seemed hard at hand. The decision to ban students from the concerts followed hard on the heels of the riot.

to an unreasonable or extreme degree; excessively; immoderately: He's hitting the bottle pretty hard.

Nautical. closely, fully, or to the extreme limit: hard aport; hard alee.

noun

Nautical. a firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.

British.

a firm or solid beach or foreshore.
a firm landing, jetty, or road across or adjoining the foreshore.

British Slang. hard labor.

Idioms for hard

be hard on, to deal harshly with; be stern: You are being too hard on him.

hard by, in close proximity to; near: The house is hard by the river.

hard of hearing. hearing-impaired.

hard put, in great perplexity or difficulty; at a loss: We were hard put to finish the examination in one hour.

hard up, Informal.

urgently in need of money.
feeling a lack or need: The country is hard up for technicians and doctors.

Origin of hard

before 900; Middle English; Old English heard; cognate with Dutch hard, German hart, Old Norse harthr, Gothic hardus; akin to Greek kratýs strong, Ionic dial. kártos strength (cf. -cracy)

SYNONYMS FOR hard

1 inflexible, rigid, compressed, compact, dense, resisting, adamantine, flinty. See firm¹.

3 toilsome, burdensome, wearisome, exhausting. Hard, difficult both describe something resistant to one's efforts or one's endurance. Hard is the general word: hard times; It was hard to endure the severe weather. Difficult means not easy, and particularly denotes that which requires special effort or skill: a difficult task.

5 complex, complicated, perplexing, puzzling, intricate, knotty, tough.

6 arduous, onerous, laborious.

8 stormy, tempestuous.

10 severe, rigorous, grinding, cruel, merciless, unsparing.

12 stern, austere, strict, exacting, relentless, obdurate, adamant; unyielding, unpitying. Hard, callous, unfeeling, unsympathetic imply a lack of interest in, feeling for, or sympathy with others. Hard implies insensibility, either natural or acquired, so that the plight of others makes no impression on one: a hard taskmaster. Callous may mean the same or that one is himself or herself insensitive to hurt as the result of continued repression and indifference: a callous answer; callous to criticism. Unfeeling implies natural inability to feel with and for others: an unfeeling and thoughtless remark. Unsympathetic implies an indifference that precludes pity, compassion, or the like: unsympathetic toward distress.

13 incontrovertible.

SEE SYNONYMS FOR hard ON THESAURUS.COM

ANTONYMS FOR hard

1 soft.

3–6 easy.

SEE ANTONYMS FOR hard ON THESAURUS.COM

OTHER WORDS FROM hard

half-hard, adjective o·ver·hard, adjective o·ver·hard·ness, noun sem·i·hard, adjective

sem·i·hard·ness, noun

Words nearby hard

harborside, harbour, harbour master, harbour seal, harbourage, hard, hard act to follow, hard and fast, hard as nails, hard bargain, hard bop

Example sentences from the Web for hardest

“It is the hardest to play,” one of the buglers says of this seemingly simple tune.

Choking Back Tears, Thousands of Cops Honor Fallen Officer Ramos |Michael Daly |December 28, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
But I will say the hardest to play for me—well, one of the easiest to improvise, but also the hardest character is Liz.

The Zany Shades of Nick Kroll |Abby Haglage |December 15, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
The pictures which would melt even the hardest of Republcian hearts were taken at the end of November.

The Adorable New Prince George Photos |Tom Sykes |December 15, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
But it is the lasting emotional scars that have been the hardest to deal with.

The Corrupt Cops of Rebel-Held East Ukraine |Kristina Jovanovski |December 11, 2014 |DAILY BEAST

She has been formidable from start to finish, and is one of the hardest workers in the company.

William, Kate, and Jay Z’s Favorite Art Star: Alexander Gilkes' World of Rock Stars and Royalty |Tim Teeman |December 10, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
His hardest work was to keep the Kansans off the Missourians.

The Struggle for Missouri |John McElroy
The younger girl sighed as she replied, “Well, I like hard games, but this one will be the hardest that I ever played.”

Dixie Martin |Grace May North
This loafing about and waiting upon the movements of Government officials is the hardest work I ever tried to do.

Letters from Port Royal |Various
You know what the poet says—“A lie that is half a lie is ever the hardest to fight.”

The Little Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker |John Strange Winter
"I don't see that it has budged any," gasped Fred, after half a minute of the hardest kind of effort.

The Rover Boys in the Land of Luck |Edward Stratemeyer

British Dictionary definitions for hardest

hard

/ (hɑːd) /

adjective

firm or rigid; not easily dented, crushed, or pierced

toughened by or as if by physical labour; not soft or smooth hard hands

difficult to do or accomplish; arduous a hard task

difficult to understand or perceive a hard question

showing or requiring considerable physical or mental energy, effort, or application hard work; a hard drinker

stern, cold, or intractable a hard judge

exacting; demanding a hard master

harsh; cruel a hard fate

inflicting pain, sorrow, distress, or hardship hard times

tough or adamant a hard man

forceful or violent a hard knock

cool or uncompromising we took a long hard look at our profit factor

indisputable; real hard facts

chem (of water) impairing the formation of a lather by soap See hardness (def. 3)

practical, shrewd, or calculating he is a hard man in business

too harsh to be pleasant hard light

(of cash, money, etc) in coin and paper rather than cheques
(of currency) in strong demand, esp as a result of a good balance of payments situation
(of credit) difficult to obtain; tight

(of alcoholic drink) being a spirit rather than a wine, beer, etc the hard stuff

(of a drug such as heroin, morphine, or cocaine) highly addictive Compare soft (def. 20)

physics (of radiation, such as gamma rays and X-rays) having high energy and the ability to penetrate solids

physics (of a vacuum) almost complete

mainly US (of goods) durable

short for hard-core See hard core (def. 3), hard core (def. 4)

(of news coverage) concentrating on serious stories

phonetics

an older word for fortis
(not in modern technical usage) denoting the consonants c and g in English when they are pronounced as velar stops (k, g)
(of consonants in the Slavonic languages) not palatalized

being heavily fortified and protected
(of nuclear missiles) located underground in massively reinforced silos

politically extreme the hard left

British and NZ informal incorrigible or disreputable (esp in the phrase a hard case)

(of bread, etc) stale and old

a hard nut to crack

a person not easily persuaded or won over
a thing not easily understood

hard by near; close by

hard doer NZ a tough worker at anything

hard done by unfairly or badly treated

hard up informal

in need of money; poor
(foll by for) in great need (of)hard up for suggestions

put the hard word on Australian and NZ informal to ask or demand something from

adverb

with great energy, force, or vigour the team always played hard

as far as possible; all the way hard left

with application; earnestly or intently she thought hard about the formula

with great intensity, force, or violence his son's death hit him hard

(foll by on, upon, by, or after) close; near hard on his heels

(foll by at) assiduously; devotedly

with effort or difficultytheir victory was hard won
(in combination)hard-earned

slowly and reluctantly prejudice dies hard

go hard with to cause pain or difficulty to (someone) it will go hard with you if you don't tell the truth

hard at it working hard

hard put or hard put to it scarcely having the capacity (to do something) he's hard put to get to work by 9:30

noun

any colorant that produces a harsh coarse appearance

British a roadway across a foreshore

slang hard labour

slang an erection of the penis (esp in the phrase get or have a hard on)

Word Origin for hard

Old English heard; related to Old Norse harthr, Old Frisian herd, Old High German herti, Gothic hardus hard, Greek kratus strong

Idioms and Phrases with hardest

hard

In addition to the idioms beginning with hard

hard act to follow
hard and fast
hard as nails
hard bargain
hard cash
harden one's heart
hard feelings
hard hat
hard hit, be
hard line
hard liquor
hard luck
hardly ever
hard nut to crack
hard of hearing
hard on
hard on someone's heels
hard pressed
hard put, be
hard row to hoe
hard sell
hard time
hard up
hard way, the

also see:

between a rock and a hard place
cold (hard) cash
come down (hard) on
die hard
drive a (hard) bargain
go hard with
no hard feelings
play hardball
play hard to get
school of hard knocks
tough (hard) row to hoe

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

hard

adjective, hard·er, hard·est.

adverb, hard·er, hard·est.

noun

Idioms for hard

Origin of hard

SYNONYMS FOR hard

ANTONYMS FOR hard

OTHER WORDS FROM hard

Words nearby hard

Example sentences from the Web for hardest

British Dictionary definitions for hardest

adjective

adverb

noun

Word Origin for hard

Idioms and Phrases with hardest

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

hard

adjective, hard·er, hard·est.

adverb, hard·er, hard·est.

noun

Idioms for hard

Origin of hard

SYNONYMS FOR hard

ANTONYMS FOR hard

OTHER WORDS FROM hard

Words nearby hard

Words related to hardest

Example sentences from the Web for hardest

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []) .push({}); British Dictionary definitions for hardest

adjective

adverb

noun

Word Origin for hard

Idioms and Phrases with hardest

British Dictionary definitions for hardest