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Hard   /hɑrd/   Listen
adjective
Hard  adj.  (compar. harder; superl. hardest)  
1.
Not easily penetrated, cut, or separated into parts; not yielding to pressure; firm; solid; compact; applied to material bodies, and opposed to soft; as, hard wood; hard flesh; a hard apple.
2.
Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily apprehended, decided, or resolved; as a hard problem. "The hard causes they brought unto Moses." "In which are some things hard to be understood."
3.
Difficult to accomplish; full of obstacles; laborious; fatiguing; arduous; as, a hard task; a disease hard to cure.
4.
Difficult to resist or control; powerful. "The stag was too hard for the horse." " A power which will be always too hard for them."
5.
Difficult to bear or endure; not easy to put up with or consent to; hence, severe; rigorous; oppressive; distressing; unjust; grasping; as, a hard lot; hard times; hard fare; a hard winter; hard conditions or terms. "I never could drive a hard bargain."
6.
Difficult to please or influence; stern; unyielding; obdurate; unsympathetic; unfeeling; cruel; as, a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character.
7.
Not easy or agreeable to the taste; harsh; stiff; rigid; ungraceful; repelling; as, a hard style. "Figures harder than even the marble itself."
8.
Rough; acid; sour, as liquors; as, hard cider.
9.
(Pron.) Abrupt or explosive in utterance; not aspirated, sibilated, or pronounced with a gradual change of the organs from one position to another; said of certain consonants, as c in came, and g in go, as distinguished from the same letters in center, general, etc.
10.
Wanting softness or smoothness of utterance; harsh; as, a hard tone.
11.
(Painting)
(a)
Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
(b)
Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in the coloring or light and shade.
Hard cancer, Hard case, etc. See under Cancer, Case, etc.
Hard clam, or Hard-shelled clam (Zool.), the quahog.
Hard coal, anthracite, as distinguished from bituminous coal (soft coal).
Hard and fast. (Naut.) See under Fast.
Hard finish (Arch.), a smooth finishing coat of hard fine plaster applied to the surface of rough plastering.
Hard lines, hardship; difficult conditions.
Hard money, coin or specie, as distinguished from paper money.
Hard oyster (Zool.), the northern native oyster. (Local, U. S.)
Hard pan, the hard stratum of earth lying beneath the soil; hence, figuratively, the firm, substantial, fundamental part or quality of anything; as, the hard pan of character, of a matter in dispute, etc. See Pan.
Hard rubber. See under Rubber.
Hard solder. See under Solder.
Hard water, water, which contains lime or some mineral substance rendering it unfit for washing. See Hardness, 3.
Hard wood, wood of a solid or hard texture; as walnut, oak, ash, box, and the like, in distinction from pine, poplar, hemlock, etc.
In hard condition, in excellent condition for racing; having firm muscles; said of race horses.
Synonyms: Solid; arduous; powerful; trying; unyielding; stubborn; stern; flinty; unfeeling; harsh; difficult; severe; obdurate; rigid. See Solid, and Arduous.


adverb
Hard  adv.  
1.
With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly. "And prayed so hard for mercy from the prince." "My father Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself."
2.
With difficulty; as, the vehicle moves hard.
3.
Uneasily; vexatiously; slowly.
4.
So as to raise difficulties. "The question is hard set."
5.
With tension or strain of the powers; violently; with force; tempestuously; vehemently; vigorously; energetically; as, to press, to blow, to rain hard; hence, rapidly; nimbly; as, to run hard.
6.
Close or near. "Whose house joined hard to the synagogue."
Hard by, near by; close at hand; not far off. "Hard by a cottage chimney smokes."
Hard pushed, Hard run, greatly pressed; as, he was hard pushed or hard run for time, money, etc. (Colloq.)
Hard up, closely pressed by want or necessity; without money or resources; as, hard up for amusements. (Slang) Note: Hard in nautical language is often joined to words of command to the helmsman, denoting that the order should be carried out with the utmost energy, or that the helm should be put, in the direction indicated, to the extreme limit, as, Hard aport! Hard astarboard! Hard alee! Hard aweather! Hard up! Hard is also often used in composition with a participle; as, hard-baked; hard-earned; hard-featured; hard-working; hard-won.


noun
Hard  n.  A ford or passage across a river or swamp.


verb
Hard  v. t.  To harden; to make hard. (Obs.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Hard" Quotes from Famous Books



... into the coast, all hands pulling with a will; Larrikins, who was stroke, giving the fellows a touch of his old style when he rowed in the captain's gig of the training-ship; the whaler, with the middy in command, running us hard, though, and the ...
— Young Tom Bowling - The Boys of the British Navy • J.C. Hutcheson
... branches over it, at the foot of which bubbled up a spring of the softest and sweetest water in a little well formed of a barrel, and then stole sparkling away through the grass to a neighboring brook that bubbled along among alders and dwarf willows. Hard by the farmhouse was a vast barn, that might have served for a church, every window and crevice of which seemed bursting forth with the treasures of the farm; the flail was busily resounding within it from morning to night; swallows and martins skimmed twittering about the eaves; ...
— The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. • Washington Irving
... the English flag, refusing to fight against the King of France. On the 26th of September, 1423, at La Gravelle, in Maine, the French were victorious, and Du Guesclin was commemorated in their victory. Anne de Laval, granddaughter of the great Breton warrior, and mistress of a castle hard by the scene of action, sent thither her son, Andrew de Laval, a child twelve years of age, and, as she buckled with her own hands the sword which his ancestor had worn, she said to him, "God make ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume III. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... what was most striking was the silence. Though the noise of London traffic as heard from a balloon has diminished of late years owing to the better paving, yet in day hours the roar of the streets is heard up to a great height as a hard, harsh, grinding din. But at night, after the last 'bus has ceased to ply, and before the market carts begin lumbering in, the balloonist, as he sails over the town, might imagine that he was traversing ...
— The Dominion of the Air • J. M. Bacon
... from the chatter and disputes of the younger ones. That summons had made them both feel older, and less like children, than ever before; but they did not speak much, only, when they sat down on a garden bench, as Miss Fosbrook held Susan's hand, she presently found some rough hard young fingers stealing into her own on the other side, and saw Sam's eyes glistening with unshed tears. She stroked his hand, and they dropped fast: but he was ashamed to cry, and ...
— The Stokesley Secret • Charlotte M. Yonge


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