hard

Solid and firm.

Adjective

  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...

    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. (of drink or drugs) Strong.

      Synonyms: strong

      Antonyms: low-alcohol

    3. (of a normally nonalcoholic drink) Containing alcohol.

      • hard cider, hard lemonade, hard seltzer, hard soda
      • 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...

      Antonyms: alcohol-free soft non-alcoholic

    4. (wine) Very 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...

    5. (of water) High in dissolved chemical salts, especially those of calcium.

    6. (physics, of a ferromagnetic material) Having the capability of being a permanent magnet by being a material with high magnetic coercivity (compare soft).

    7. (physics, of electromagnetic radiation) Having a high energy (high frequency; short wavelength).

      • hard X-rays

    8. (photography, of light) Made up of parallel rays, producing clearly defined shadows.

  2. Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.
    • a hard problem; a hard question; a hard topic
    • 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...
    • 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...

    Synonyms: confusing difficult puzzling tough tricky arduous challenging nasty effortful hard rough rocky thistly uneath unsimple

    Antonyms: easy simple straightforward trite

    1. Difficult or requiring a lot of effort to do, understand, experience, or deal with.

    2. Demanding a lot of effort to endure.

      • a hard life

      Synonyms: difficult intolerable tough unbearable

      Antonyms: bearable easy

    3. Severe, harsh, unfriendly, brutal.

      • a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character
      • 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...

      Synonyms: harsh hostile severe strict tough unfriendly brutal callous cold cold-eyed cruel dour flint-hearted forbidding frosty grim hard hard-boiled hardened hardhearted heartless humorless icy iron-hearted

    4. (dated) Difficult 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]...
      • 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; […],...

    5. (military) Hardened; having unusually strong defences.

      • a hard site

    6. (slang) Tough, muscular, badass.

      • He thinks he's well hard.
      • 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,...

    7. (slang) Excellent, impressive.

      • This song goes hard.
      • This guy always has the hardest fits.
  3. Unquestionable; unequivocal.
    • hard evidence; a hard requirement
    • […]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:

    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. Sexually aroused; having an erect penis.
    • I got so hard watching two hot girls wrestle each other on the beach.

    Antonyms: soft flaccid

  6. Having muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise.
  7. Fortis.
    • There is a hard c in "clock" and a soft c in "centre".

    Antonyms: soft

    1. Plosive.

    2. Unvoiced.

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

      Antonyms: soft

  8. Velarized 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. Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.

    2. Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in colour or shading.

  10. In a physical form, not digital.
    • a soft or hard copy; a digital or hard archive
  11. Using a manual or physical process, not by means of a software command.
    • a hard reboot or reset
  12. Far, extreme.
    • hard right, hard left

Origin

From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kort-ús, from *kret- (“strong, powerful”). Cognates Cognate with Yola hard (“hard”), West Frisian hurd (“hard”), Alemannic German hert (“hard”), Bavarian hoat (“hard”), Central Franconian haat (“hard”), Dutch hard (“hard”), German hart (“hard”), Luxembourgish haart (“hard”), Danish and Swedish hård (“hard”), Faroese and Icelandic harður (“hard”), Norwegian Bokmål hard (“hard”), Norwegian Nynorsk hard, hard’u (“hard”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus, “hard”), Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús, “strong, mighty”), Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu, “power, might, ability”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬀𐬙𐬎 (xratu).

Forms

harder more hard hardest most hard

Synonyms

adamantine concrete firm granitic grim hard inflexible lithic resistant rigid robust solid stiff stout sturdy stony tough unbending unyielding

Antonyms

cushiony flexible soft spongy moldable tender yielding

Hyponyms

indurate obstinate starched stubborn unshakeable vitreous

Related

hardpeer hardy hard as nails

Derived

an old dog for a hard road between a rock and a hard place blow-hard bone-hard bone hard cold hard cash die-hard do the hard yards drive a hard bargain dumb hard fall on hard times find out the hard way forhard give someone a hard time go hard go hard or go home go hard with someone hard act to follow hard and fast hard-and-fast hard-arse hard as a rock hard as brazil hard as Chinese algebra

Adverb

  1. With much force or effort.
    • He hit the puck hard up the ice.
    • They worked hard all week.
    • The recession hit them especially hard.
  2. With difficulty.
    • His degree was hard earned.
  3. So 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. Compactly.
    • The lake had finally frozen hard.
  5. Near, close.
    • At the intersection, bear hard left.
    • 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),...
    • […]whose house joined hard to the synagogue. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 18:7:

Forms

harder hardest

Derived

blowhard cry harder die hard go hard in the paint go hard on go hard with hard aport hard astarboard hard at it hard-baked hard-bitten hard-bound hard by hard-coded hard-contested hard done by hard-drawn hard drinker hard-drinking hard-driven hard-earned hard-fought hard-gained hard-got

Noun

  1. A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.
    • 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...
    • 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:
  2. A tyre whose compound is softer than superhards, and harder than mediums.
  3. Crack cocaine.
  4. Hard labor.
    • The prisoners were sentenced to three years' hard.

Forms

hards

Derived

Bucklers Hard

Verb

  1. To 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:

Origin

From Middle English harden, herden, from Old English heardian (“to become hard”) and hierdan (“to make hard”), from Proto-West Germanic *hardēn and *hardijan, from Proto-Germanic *hardijaną. Cognates Cognate with Dutch harden (“to harden”), German härten (“to harden”), Danish hærde (“to harden; to temper”), Icelandic herða (“to harden”), Norwegian Bokmål herde (“to harden; to toughen”), Norwegian Nynorsk herda (“to make hard, temper; harden”), Swedish härda (“harden, temper”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (gahardjan), *𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (*hardjan, “to harden”).

Forms

hards harding harded