hard

comparative harder · comparative more hard · superlative hardest · superlative most hard

1. Solid and firm.

   Luckily she wasn’t there any more, no one was, when he returned from the Caribbean carnival damp-hatted and soaked through after being caught unprepared by a squall of hard, hot rain.

   2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5

   1. Resistant to pressure; difficult to break, cut, or penetrate.

      This bread is so stale and hard, I can barely cut it.

      Synonyms: resistant, solid, stony · Antonyms: soft

   2. Strong.

      Synonyms: strong · Antonyms: low-alcohol

   3. Containing alcohol.

      hard cider, hard lemonade, hard seltzer, hard soda

      1 more example

      Stunned, she deleted his number and went home. Then she cracked a hard seltzer, opened her phone’s camera and filmed a TikTok video recounting the evening […].

      2023 March 1, Rachel Ellison, “Bad Dates Turn Out to Be Excellent on TikTok”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 02 Mar 2023

      Antonyms: alcohol-free, soft, non-alcoholic

   4. beveragesVery acidic or tannic.

      While most 1974s remain hard, tannic, hollow wines lacking ripeness, flesh, and character, a number of the Graves estates did produce surprisingly spicy, interesting wines.

      2002, Robert M. Parker (Jr.), Pierre-Antoine Rovani, Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide (page 175)

   5. High in dissolved chemical salts, especially those of calcium.
   6. natural sciencesHaving the capability of being a permanent magnet by being a material with high magnetic coercivity (compare soft).
   7. natural sciencesHaving a high energy (high frequency; short wavelength).

      hard X-rays

   8. artsMade up of parallel rays, producing clearly defined shadows.
2. Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.
   1. personal or socialDifficult or requiring a lot of effort to do, understand, experience, or deal with.

      a hard problem;  a hard question;  a hard topic

      4 more examples

      Ray found it hard to imagine having accumulated so many mannerisms before the dawn of sex, of the sexual need to please, of the staginess sex encourages or the tightly capped wells of poisoned sexual desire the disappointed must stand guard over.

      1988, Edmund White, An Oracle

      The stone circle is small and hard to find and the search is made harder because all down the beck cars are parked on the verge and the supposedly unfrequented road up the valley very busy.

      1999 January 21, Alan Bennett, “What I did in 1998”, in London Review of Books, volume 21, number 2

      The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile.

      2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32

      It’s been said that, for nonstellar teachers at least, the hardest things to teach are the things one loves most.

      2016 January 2, James Romm, “Beginning Greek, Again and Again”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Nov 2020

      Synonyms: confusing, difficult, puzzling, tough, tricky, arduous, challenging, nasty · Antonyms: easy, simple, straightforward, trite

   2. personal or socialDemanding a lot of effort to endure.

      a hard life

      Synonyms: difficult, intolerable, tough, unbearable · Antonyms: bearable, easy

   3. personal or socialSevere, harsh, unfriendly, brutal.

      a hard master;  a hard heart;  hard words;  a hard character

      2 more examples

      The senator asked the party chief to put the hard word on his potential rivals.

      [L]eave off fornicating, leave the Girls to the Boys, and ſtand to thy Bottle: It is a Virtue becoming our Years; and don't be too hard on a vvild honeſt young Rake.

      1730, [Henry Fielding], Rape upon Rape; or, The Justice Caught in His Own Trap. A Comedy. […], London: […] J. Wat[t]s, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene vii, page 58

      Synonyms: harsh, hostile, severe, strict, tough, unfriendly, brutal, callous

   4. datedpersonal or socialDifficult to resist or control; powerful.

      The stag was too hard for the horse.

      1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

      1 more example

      a power which will be always too hard for them

      1716 March 22 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 24. Sunday, March 12. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC

   5. personal or socialgovernmentHardened; having unusually strong defences.

      a hard site

   6. slangpersonal or socialTough, muscular, badass.

      He thinks he's well hard.

      1 more example

      I was a hard niggah, but not twisted enough to eat and socialize with my peeps knowing I was planning on robbing them before the night was over.

      2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 108

   7. slangpersonal or socialExcellent, impressive.

      This song goes hard.

      1 more example

      This guy always has the hardest fits.

3. Unquestionable; unequivocal.

   hard evidence;  a hard requirement

   3 more examples

   […]for, unless supported by hard facts, abusive words would recoil on him who used them, and would pass like empty air over the head of an innocent man.

   1796, The History of the Trial of Warren Hastings

   Here are a few techniques to turn a hard "no" into an easy "yes"!

   1962, The Selling Power of a Woman

   Unsurprisingly for a man who went into mourning for three years after the death in 1994 of his own father, the legendary leader Kim Il-sung, and who in the first 30 years of his political career made no public statements, even to his own people, Kim's career is riddled with claims, counter claims, speculation, and contradiction. There are few hard facts about his birth and early years.

   2011 December 19, Kerry Brown, “Kim Jong-il obituary”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: incontrovertible, indubitable, unambiguous, unequivocal, unquestionable

4. Having a comparatively larger or a ninety-degree angle.

   At the intersection, there are two roads going to the left. Take the hard left.

5. slangvulgarSexually aroused; having an erect penis.

   I got so hard watching two hot girls wrestle each other on the beach.

   Antonyms: soft, flaccid

6. bodybuildingHaving muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise.
7. Fortis.
   1. not comparablehuman sciencesPlosive.

      There is a hard c in "clock" and a soft c in "centre".

      Antonyms: soft

   2. not comparablehuman sciencesUnvoiced.

      Hard k, t, s, ch, as distinguished from soft, g, d, z, j.

      Antonyms: soft

8. Slavic phonologyVelarized or plain, rather than palatalized.

   The letter ж (ž) in Russian is always hard.

9. Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment.
   1. artRigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
   2. artHaving disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in colour or shading.
10. not comparableIn a physical form, not digital.

    a soft or hard copy; a digital or hard archive

11. not comparableUsing a manual or physical process, not by means of a software command.

    a hard reboot or reset

12. governmentFar, extreme.

    hard right, hard left

13. Not having had the natural gum boiled off.
14. businessOf a market: having more demand than supply; being a seller's market.

    Undercapitalized insurers cannot retain more catastrophe risks when the market is hard […]

    2009, J. David Cummins, Olivier Mahul, Catastrophe Risk Financing in Developing Countries, page 7

    Antonyms: soft

15. lifestyleHardcore.

comparative harder · superlative hardest

1. mannerWith much force or effort.

   They worked hard all week.

   5 more examples

   He hit the puck hard up the ice.

   The recession hit them especially hard.

   Think hard about your choices.

   The couple were fucking each other hard.

   Be nought diſmayd that her vnmoued mind, / doth ſtill perſiſt in her rebellious pride: / ſuch loue not lyke to luſts of baſer kynd, / the harder vvonne, the firmer vvill abide.

   1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet VI”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, signature A4, verso

2. mannerWith difficulty.

   His degree was hard earned.

3. obsoleteSo as to raise difficulties.

   The question is hard set.

   1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC

4. mannerCompactly.

   The lake had finally frozen hard.

5. archaicNear, close.

   At the intersection, bear hard left.

   3 more examples

   The King your brother is now hard at hand, / Meete with the foole, and rid your royall ſhoulders / Of ſuch a burden, as outweighs the ſands / And all the craggie rockes of Caſpea.

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii

   […]whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 18:7

   It was another long day's march before they glimpsed the towers of Harrenhal in the distance, hard beside the blue waters of the lake.

   1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 418

plural hards

1. countablenauticalA firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.

   He brought the dinghy up to the careening hard. Two or three boats lay on their sides on the sloping roadway, but there was no sign of life.

   1967, John Christopher, The White Mountains

   1 more example

   The Monastery's ironworks at Sowley were renowned for centuries but declined with the passing of the 'wooden walls' at Buckler's Hard — a great number of these ships having been built with timber from the Beaulieu Woods […]

   1952, Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu Baron Montagu, Beaulieu, the Abbey, Palace House, and Buckler's Hard, page 36

2. countablehobbiesA tyre whose compound is softer than superhards, and harder than mediums.
3. slanguncountabledrugsCrack cocaine.
4. slanguncountableHard labor.

   The prisoners were sentenced to three years' hard.

present singular third person hards · participle present harding · participle past harded · past harded

1. obsoletetransitiveTo make hard, harden.

   He knows vain men: he sees their harts that hard them In Guiles and Wiles, and will not hee regard them?

   1641, original 1618, Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas, Josuah Sylvester, Du Bartas His Diuine Weekes and Workes

plural Hards

1. A surname.

1. mnemonicnot comparableAn acronym for remembering desirable characteristics for goal-setting: heartfelt, animated, required, difficult.

   Unlike achievable and realistic goals that leave you stuck in the status-quo, HARD Goals light up the brain and encourage great performance.

   2017 June 11, Mark Murphy, “HARD Goals, Not SMART Goals, Are The Key To Career Development”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 11 Jun 2017