Pronunciations (4)
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/hɑːd/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/hɑɹd/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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hɑːd
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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hɑɹd
Pronunciation notes
- US
Adjective
Solid and firm.
Usage- of material or fluid
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
Solid and firm. Resistant to pressure; difficult to break, cut, or penetrate.
Usage- of material or fluid
- Antonyms
- Examples
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This bread is so stale and hard, I can barely cut it.
Solid and firm. Strong.
Usage- of drink or drugs
- of material or fluid
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
Solid and firm. Containing alcohol.
Usage- of a normally nonalcoholic drink
- of material or fluid
- Antonyms
- Examples
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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 […].
Solid and firm. Very acidic or tannic.
Usage- of material or fluid
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
Solid and firm. High in dissolved chemical salts, especially those of calcium.
Usage- of water
- of material or fluid
Solid and firm. Having the capability of being a permanent magnet by being a material with high magnetic coercivity (compare soft).
Usage- of a ferromagnetic material
- of material or fluid
Solid and firm. Having a high energy (high frequency; short wavelength).
Usage- of electromagnetic radiation
- of material or fluid
- Examples
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hard X-rays
Solid and firm. Made up of parallel rays, producing clearly defined shadows.
Usage- of light
- of material or fluid
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Difficult or requiring a lot of effort to do, understand, experience, or deal with.
- Antonyms
- Examples
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a hard problem; a hard question; a hard topic
More examples (3)
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.
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.
It’s been said that, for nonstellar teachers at least, the hardest things to teach are the things one loves most.
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Demanding a lot of effort to endure.
- Examples
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a hard life
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Severe, harsh, unfriendly, brutal.
- Examples
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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.
More examples (1)
[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.
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
Usage- Dated
- Examples
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The stag was too hard for the horse.
a power which will be always too hard for them
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Hardened; having unusually strong defences.
- Examples
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a hard site
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Tough, muscular, badass.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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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.
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Excellent, impressive.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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This song goes hard.
This guy always has the hardest fits.
Unquestionable; unequivocal.
- Examples
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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.
More examples (2)
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.
Having a comparatively larger or a ninety-degree angle.
Usage- of a road intersection
- Examples
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At the intersection, there are two roads going to the left. Take the hard left.
Sexually aroused; having an erect penis.
Usage- Slang
- Vulgar
- Examples
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I got so hard watching two hot girls wrestle each other on the beach.
Having muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise.
Fortis. Plosive.
Usage- not-comparable
- Antonyms
- Examples
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There is a hard c in "clock" and a soft c in "centre".
Fortis. Unvoiced.
Usage- not-comparable
- Antonyms
- Examples
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Hard k, t, s, ch, as distinguished from soft, g, d, z, j.
Velarized or plain, rather than palatalized.
- Examples
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The letter ж (ž) in Russian is always hard.
Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment. Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment. Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in colour or shading.
In a physical form, not digital.
Usage- not-comparable
- Examples
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a soft or hard copy; a digital or hard archive
Using a manual or physical process, not by means of a software command.
Usage- not-comparable
- Examples
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a hard reboot or reset
Far, extreme.
- Examples
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hard right, hard left
Not having had the natural gum boiled off.
Usage- of silk
Of a market: having more demand than supply; being a seller's market.
- Antonyms
- Examples
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Undercapitalized insurers cannot retain more catastrophe risks when the market is hard […]
Hardcore.
Adverb
With much force or effort.
- Examples
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He hit the puck hard up the ice.
They worked hard all week.
More examples (8)
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.
[…] My father / Is hard at study. Pray now, rest yourself; […]
prayed so hard for mercy from the prince
I played hard, I drank hard, I rode hard, and did everything much on the same pattern.
What, then, of the voluntarist's sense that one often has to think long and hard before making agonizing choices?
With difficulty.
- Examples
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His degree was hard earned.
So as to raise difficulties.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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The question is hard set.
Compactly.
- Examples
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The lake had finally frozen hard.
Near, close.
Usage- Archaic
- Examples
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At the intersection, bear hard left.
More examples (1)
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.
[…]whose house joined hard to the synagogue.
More examples (1)
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.
Noun
A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
A tyre whose compound is softer than superhards, and harder than mediums.
Usage- Countable
Crack cocaine.
Usage- Slang
- Uncountable
Hard labor.
Usage- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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The prisoners were sentenced to three years' hard.
Verb
To make hard, harden.
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
- Examples
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He knows vain men: he sees their harts that hard them In Guiles and Wiles, and will not hee regard them?
Adjective
not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a difficult task
nesting places on the cliffs are difficult of access
More examples (2)
difficult times
why is it so hard for you to keep a secret?
dispassionate
- Antonyms
- Examples
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took a hard look
a hard bargainer
resisting weight or pressure
- Antonyms
very strong or vigorous
- Examples
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a hard left to the chin
a knockout punch
More examples (1)
a severe blow
characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort
- Examples
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worked their arduous way up the mining valley
a grueling campaign
More examples (5)
hard labor
heavy work
heavy going
spent many laborious hours on the project
set a punishing pace
produced without vibration of the vocal cords
- Examples
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unvoiced consonants such as ‘p’ and ‘k’ and ‘s’
(of light) transmitted directly from a pointed light source
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
(of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward or touching the velum
- Antonyms
- Examples
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Russian distinguished between hard consonants and palatalized or soft consonants
given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a hard drinker
being distilled rather than fermented; having a high alcoholic content
- Synonyms
- Examples
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hard liquor
unfortunate or hard to bear
- Synonyms
- Examples
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had hard luck
a tough break
dried out
- Examples
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hard dry rolls left over from the day before
Adverb
with effort or force or vigor
- Examples
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the team played hard
worked hard all day
More examples (3)
pressed hard on the lever
hit the ball hard
slammed the door hard
with firmness
- Synonyms
- Examples
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held hard to the railing
earnestly or intently
- Examples
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thought hard about it
stared hard at the accused
causing great damage or hardship
- Synonyms
- Examples
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industries hit hard by the depression
she was severely affected by the bank's failure
slowly and with difficulty
- Synonyms
- Examples
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prejudices die hard
he was so dizzy he could hardly stand up straight
indulging excessively
- Synonyms
- Examples
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he drank heavily
into a solid condition
- Examples
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concrete that sets hard within a few hours
very near or close in space or time
- Examples
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it stands hard by the railroad tracks
they were hard on his heels
More examples (1)
a strike followed hard upon the plant's opening
with pain or distress or bitterness
- Examples
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he took the rejection very hard
to the full extent possible; all the way
- Examples
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hard alee
the ship went hard astern
More examples (1)
swung the wheel hard left