hard adj

1 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"; "a difficult child"; "found himself in a difficult situation"; "why is it so hard for you to keep a secret?" [syn: difficult] [ant: easy]

2 metaphorically hard; "a hard fate"; "took a hard look"; "a hard bargainer"; "a hard climb" [ant: soft]

3 not yielding to pressure or easily penetrated; "hard as rock" [ant: soft]

4 very strong or vigorous; "strong winds"; "a hard left to the chin"; "a knockout punch"; "a severe blow" [syn: knockout, severe]

5 characterized by toilsome 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" [syn: arduous, backbreaking, grueling, gruelling, heavy, laborious, punishing, toilsome]

6 of speech sounds [ant: soft]

7 of a drinker or drinking; indulging intemperately; "does a lot of hard drinking"; "a heavy drinker" [syn: hard(a), heavy]

8 having undergone fermentation; "hard cider" [syn: fermented]

9 having a high alcoholic content; "hard liquor" [syn: strong]

10 unfortunate or hard to bear; "had hard luck"; "a tough break" [syn: tough]

11 dried out; "hard dry rolls left over from the day before" adv

1 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"

2 with firmness; "held hard to the railing" [syn: firmly]

3 earnestly or intently; "thought hard about it"; "stared hard at the accused"

4 causing great damage or hardship; "industries hit hard by the depression"; "she was severely affected by the bank's failure" [syn: severely]

5 slowly and with difficulty; "prejudices die hard"

6 indulging excessively; "he drank heavily" [syn: heavily, intemperately] [ant: lightly]

7 into a solid condition; "concrete that sets hard within a few hours"

8 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"

9 with pain or distress or bitterness; "he took the rejection very hard"

10 to the full extent possible; all the way; "hard alee"; "the ship went hard astern"; "swung the wheel hard left" [also: hardest, harder]

English

Etymology

Old English heard

Pronunciation

• (UK) , /hɑːd/, /hA:d/
• (US) , /hɑɹd/, /hArd/
• Rhymes with: -ɑː(r)d

Homophones

• heart (in some dialects)

Adjective

en-adj er

1. Resistant to pressure.
2. Requiring a lot of effort to do or understand

   a hard problem

3. Demanding a lot of effort to endure.

   a hard life

4. In the context of "of a person": , severe, harsh, unfriendly, brutal.
5. Unquestionable.

   hard evidence

6. Of drink, strong.
7. Of water, high in dissolved calcium compounds.
8. In the context of "slang|vulgar}} Sexually aroused.

Hard or Hardness may refer to:

• Hardness, resistance of physical materials to change under force.
• Hard water has a high mineral content.
• Mathematical difficulty; see computational complexity theory.
• A difficulty level in a video game.
• Street hardness, an attribute characterized by physical and mental toughness due to living in hostile urban environments.
• Hard, Austria, a town in Austria.
• Slang for erection of the penis when sexually excited or aroused. See Erection
• Hard, When you do something very strongly; with a lot of emphasis
• Hard, a music album by Brainpower

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close by, close-knit, close-textured, close-woven, coarse, cohesive, cold, cold of heart, coldblooded, coldhearted, compact, compacted, complex, complicated, compressed, concentrated, concrete, condensed, conditioning, conflicting, congested, conscienceless, conscientious, conscientiously, consolidated, consonant, consonantal, continuant, contrary, cool, coriaceous, corneous, counter, counteractive, crabbed, crammed, crammed full, cramp, cramping, critical, crowded, cruel, dark, deep, deeply, definite, delicate, demanding, dense, dental, despotic, determinedly, detrimental, devastating, devoted, devotedly, dictatorial, difficile, difficult, diligent, diligently, disastrous, dispassionate, dissimilated, distinct, distressing, distressingly, dog-eat-dog, dogged, doggedly, dorsal, doughty, dour, down-to-earth, dull, durable, dure, dynamically, eager, eagerly, earnestly, effortful, effortfully, enduring, energetic, energetically, enigmatic, exacting, excruciating, exhausting, factual, fast by, fatiguing, fervent, fibrous, firm, flat, flinthearted, flintlike, flinty, forceful, forcefully, forcible, forcibly, forcy, formidable, front, full-blooded, full-strength, fundamentalist, garbled, genuine, glide, glossal, glottal, gluey, gnawing, granitelike, granitic, grave, grievous, grim, grinding, griping, gristly, gutsy, guttural, gutty, habit-forming, habituating, hairy, hale, hammer and tongs, hard as nails, hard by, hard of heart, hard to understand, hard up, hard-bitten, hard-boiled, hard-core, hard-earned, hard-fought, hard-nosed, hard-set, hardened, hardheaded, hardhearted, hardworking, hardy, harmful, harrowing, harsh, harshly, heart and soul, heartily, heartless, hearty, heavy, hefty, hereabout, hereabouts, hidebound, high, horny, hostile, hurtful, hurting, husky, ill, immovable, immutable, impassible, impecunious, impenetrable, impenitent, impermeable, impervious, implacable, impliable, impoverished, impregnable, in opposition, in spitting distance, in the red, inclement, incomprehensible, incontestable, incontrovertible, indefatigable, indefatigably, indigent, indisputable, indurate, indurated, industrious, industriously, inelastic, ineluctable, inescapable, inexorable, inflexible, inhuman, inimical, inscrutable, insensate, insensitive, insolent, insoluble, intemperate, intense, intensely, intent, intently, intonated, intractable, intransigent, intricate, inured, involved, irksome, iron, iron-hard, ironbound, ironclad, ironhanded, ironlike, irreconcilable, jam-packed, jammed, jawbreaking, jumbled, keen, knotted, knotty, labial, labiodental, labiovelar, labored, laborious, laboriously, lapideous, lasting, lateral, lax, leatherlike, leathery, light, lingual, liquid, lithoid, lithoidal, lost to shame, low, lusty, magisterial, manfully, marble, marblelike, massive, matter-of-fact, mean, merciless, methodical, mid, mightily, mighty, miserable, monophthongal, most, much, muscle-bound, muted, narrow, nasal, nasalized, near, near at hand, nearabout, nearabouts, nearby, nervy, never idle, nigh, nigh about, no picnic, nonporous, not easy, not far, obdurate, obfuscated, obscure, obscured, obstinate, occlusive, onerous, only a step, open, operose, operosely, opposed, opposing, opposite, oppressive, orthodox, osseous, overtechnical, oxytone, pachydermatous, packed, painful, painfully, palatal, palatalized, paroxysmal, penetrating, penniless, perplexed, perplexing, perseveringly, persistent, persistently, petrified, pharyngeal, pharyngealized, phonemic, phonetic, phonic, physiologically addictive, piercing, pitch, pitched, pitiless, plain, poignant, poor, positive, posttonic, potent, poverty-stricken, powerful, practical, practically, pragmatic, procrustean, profound, proof against, psychologically addictive, puissant, pungent, purist, puristic, puritan, puritanic, puzzling, racking, real, realistic, red-blooded, relentless, relentlessly, remorseless, resistant, resistive, retroflex, rigid, rigorist, rigoristic, rigorous, robust, robustious, rock-ribbed, rockbound, rocklike, rocky, ropy, rough, rounded, rugged, ruthless, savage, scabrous, scrambled, searching, seared, sedulous, sedulously, semivowel, serious, serried, set, set with thorns, severe, severely, shameless, sharp, shooting, sinewy, sinister, slavish, sleepless, sober, soft, solid, solidified, sonant, sound, sour, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, spiny, spiritedly, spirituous, stabbing, stable, stalwart, stark, steadfastly, steady, steeled against, steellike, steely, steep, stern, sticky, stiff, stinging, stonelike, stony, stonyhearted, stopped, stout, straight, straightforward, straightlaced, straining, straitlaced, strapping, strenuous, strenuously, stressed, stressful, strict, stringent, stringy, strong, strong as brandy, strong as strong, strong-willed, stubborn, studiously, sturdy, substantial, surd, sure-enough, syllabic, systematic, tangled, tart, tenacious, tense, terrible, the hard way, thereabout, thereabouts, thick, thick-growing, thick-skinned, thickset, thorny, throaty, ticklish, tireless, tiring, toilsome, toilsomely, tonal, tonic, tooth and nail, tormenting, torturous, tough, tough as leather, tricky, troublesome, troublous, trying, twangy, tyrannical, unabject, unaccented, unaffected, unalterable, unavoidable, unbending, unblushing, unchangeable, uncompassionate, uncompassioned, uncompromising, uncontrite, undeniable, unemotional, unfalteringly, unfavorable, unfeeling, unflagging, unforgiving, unfriendly, ungentle, ungiving, unidealistic, unkind, unmelted, unmerciful, unmoved, unnatural, unpitiful, unpitying, unpleasant, unquestionable, unrelenting, unremitting, unremorseful, unrepentant, unrepenting, unresponsive, unrounded, unsentimental, unsleeping, unsoftened, unsolvable, unsparing, unstressed, unsympathetic, unsympathizing, untiring, untiringly, untouched, untoward, unvarnished, unwearied, unyielding, uphill, urgently, vehement, velar, verifiable, vigorous, vigorously, vinous, violently, viscid, viscose, viscous, vocalic, vocoid, voiced, voiceless, vowel, vowellike, weak, wearing, wearisome, wearying, well-built, well-constructed, well-defined, well-founded, well-grounded, well-made, well-nigh, wicked, wide, winy, wiry, with a kick, with a will, with effort, within call, within earshot, within hearing, within reach, without mercy, wretched, zealous, zealously