hard

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

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

(of material or fluid) Solid and firm.
(of drink or drugs) Strong.

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 Excellent on TikTok”, in The New York Times:

(of a normally nonalcoholic drink) Containing alcohol.

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)

(of material or fluid) Solid and firm.
(oenology) Very acidic or tannic.

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

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

hard X-rays

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

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

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:

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 disappointed must stand guard over.

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:

(personal or social) Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.

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

Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.

a hard life

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 Justice Caught in His Own Trap. A Comedy. […], London: […] J. Wat[t]s, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene vii, page 58:

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:

a power which will be always too hard for them

1716 March 23 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 24. Monday, March 12. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:

(dated) Difficult to resist or control; powerful.

Difficult to resist or control; powerful.

a hard site

(military) Hardened; having unusually strong defences.

Hardened; having unusually strong defences.

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, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 108:

This song goes hard.

This guy always has the hardest fits.

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"!

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:

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

(of a road intersection) Having a comparatively larger or a ninety-degree angle.

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

(slang, vulgar, of a male) Sexually aroused; having an erect penis.

Sexually aroused; having an erect penis.

(bodybuilding) Having muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise.

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

(phonetics, not comparable) Fortis.
Plosive.

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

(phonetics, not comparable) Fortis.
Unvoiced.

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

(Slavic phonology) Velarized or plain, rather than palatalized.

Velarized or plain, rather than palatalized.

(art) Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment.

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

Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in colour or shading.

a soft or hard copy; a digital or hard archive

(not comparable)
In a physical form, not digital.

a hard reboot or reset

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

hard right, hard left

Of silk: not having had the natural gum boiled off.

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:

(finance) Of a market: having more demand than supply; being a seller's market.

en-adj

hard (comparative harder or more hard, superlative hardest or most hard)

harder (comparative)
more hard (comparative)
hardest (superlative)
most hard (superlative)

→ Finnish: haarti

→ Spanish: hard

صَعْب

requiring a lot of effort to do or understand

անտանելի

of water, high in dissolved calcium compounds

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”). Cognate with German hart, Swedish hård, Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús), Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬀𐬙𐬎 (xratu).


hard

He hit the puck hard up the ice.

They worked hard all week.

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:

[…] My father / Is hard at study. Pray now, rest yourself; […]

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

prayed so hard for mercy from the prince

1700, [John] Dryden, “The Wife of Bath's Tale”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

I played hard, I drank hard, I rode hard, and did everything much on the same pattern.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 164:

What, then, of the voluntarist's sense that one often has to think long and hard before making agonizing choices?

1985, Michael A. Arbib, In search of the person: philosophical explorations in cognitive science, page 119:

His degree was hard earned.

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:

The lake had finally frozen hard.

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, [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:

en-adv

hard (comparative harder, superlative hardest)

harder (comparative)
hardest (superlative)

трудно

with much force or effort (related to act of think)


hard

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:

(countable, nautical) A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.

(countable, motor racing) A tyre whose compound is softer than superhards, and harder than mediums.

(uncountable, drugs, slang) Crack cocaine.

The prisoners were sentenced to three years' hard.

en-noun

hard (countable and uncountable, plural hards)


hard

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:

(transitive, obsolete) To make hard, harden.

en-verb

hard (third-person singular simple present hards, present participle harding, simple past and past participle harded)

hards (present singular third-person)
harding (participle present)
harded (participle past)
harded (past)

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.