hard

  • (a) not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure
    • a difficult task
    • nesting places on the cliffs are difficult of access
    • difficult times
    • why is it so hard for you to keep a secret?
    difficult,
  • (r) with effort or force or vigor
    • the team played hard
    • worked hard all day
    • pressed hard on the lever
    • hit the ball hard
    • slammed the door hard
  • (a) dispassionate
    • took a hard look
    • a hard bargainer";
  • (r) with firmness
    • held hard to the railing
    firmly,
  • (r) earnestly or intently
    • thought hard about it
    • stared hard at the accused
  • (a) resisting weight or pressure
  • (s) very strong or vigorous
    • strong winds
    • a hard left to the chin
    • a knockout punch
    • a severe blow
    knockout, severe,
  • (r) causing great damage or hardship
    • industries hit hard by the depression
    • she was severely affected by the bank's failure
    severely,
  • (s) characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort
    • worked their arduous way up the mining valley
    • a grueling campaign
    • hard labor
    • heavy work
    • heavy going
    • spent many laborious hours on the project
    • set a punishing pace
    arduous, backbreaking, grueling, gruelling, laborious, operose, toilsome, punishing, heavy,
  • (r) slowly and with difficulty
    • prejudices die hard
  • (a) produced without vibration of the vocal cords
    • unvoiced consonants such as "p" and "k" and "s"
    surd, unvoiced, voiceless,
  • (r) indulging excessively
    • he drank heavily
    intemperately, heavily,
  • (r) into a solid condition
    • concrete that sets hard within a few hours
  • (a) (of light) transmitted directly from a pointed light source concentrated,
  • (r) very near or close in space or time
    • it stands hard by the railroad tracks
    • they were hard on his heels
    • a strike followed hard upon the plant's opening
  • (a) (of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward or touching the velum
    • Russian distinguished between hard consonants and palatalized or soft consonants
  • (s) given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors
    • a hard drinker
    intemperate, heavy,
  • (r) with pain or distress or bitterness
    • he took the rejection very hard
  • (s) being distilled rather than fermented; having a high alcoholic content
    • hard liquor
    strong,
  • (r) to the full extent possible; all the way
    • hard alee
    • the ship went hard astern
    • swung the wheel hard left
  • (s) unfortunate or hard to bear
    • had hard luck
    • a tough break
    tough,
  • (s) dried out
    • hard dry rolls left over from the day before

Synonyms

difficult firmly knockout severe severely arduous backbreaking grueling gruelling laborious operose toilsome punishing heavy surd unvoiced voiceless intemperately heavily concentrated intemperate strong tough

Antonyms

easy soft sonant voiced lightly diffuse diffused

See also

demanding effortful difficult insensitive merciless unmerciful tough

Words of close approximity

hare hark harm harp hart
hag haj ham Han hao hap hat haw hay
hack hadj haem haft Hahn haik hail hair haji hajj hake Hale half hall halm halo Hals halt hame hand hang Hani hank hare hark harm harp hart hash hasp hate haul have hawk Hays haze hazy
hard-and-fast hardback hardbacked hardbake hard-baked hardball hard beech hard-bitten hardboard hard-boiled hard-boiled egg hardbound hard candy hard cash hard cheese hard cider hard clam hard coal hard-cooked egg hard copy hardcore hard core hard-core hardcover hard currency hard disc hard disk hard drink hard drive hard drug harden Hardenbergia Hardenbergia comnptoniana hardened hardening hardening of the arteries hard fern hardfisted hard-fought hard hat hardheaded hardheads hardhearted hardheartedness hard-hitting hardihood hardiness Harding hardinggrass Harding grass hard knocks hard lead hardline hard line hard-line hardliner hard liquor hardly hardly a hardness hard news hard-nosed hard-of-hearing hard-on hard palate hardpan hard-pressed hard put hard right hard roe hard roll hard rubber hard rush hard sauce hardscrabble hard sell hard-shell clam hard-shell crab hard-shelled hardship hard shoulder hard-skinned puffball hard solder hard steel hardstem bulrush hardstemmed bulrush hard surface hardtack hard tick hard time hard times hardtop hard to please hard-to-please hard up hardware hardware error hardwareman hardware store hard water