Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Hard

Hard

(härd)
,
Adj.
[
Com
par.
Harder
(-ẽr)
;
sup
erl.
Hardest
.]
[OE.
hard
,
heard
, AS.
heard
; akin to OS. & D.
hard
, G.
hart
, OHG.
herti
,
harti
, Icel.
harðr
, Dan.
haard
, Sw.
hård
, Goth.
hardus
, Gr.
κρατύσ
strong,
κάρτος
,
κράτος
, strength, and also to E.
-ard
, as in
coward
,
drunkard
,
-crat
,
-cracy
in auto
crat
, demo
cracy
; cf. Skr.
kratu
strength,
kṛ
to do, make. Cf.
Hardy
.]
1.
Not easily penetrated, cut, or separated into parts; not yielding to pressure; firm; solid; compact; – applied to material bodies, and opposed to
soft
;
as,
hard
wood;
hard
flesh; a
hard
apple.
2.
Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily apprehended, decided, or resolved;
as a
hard
problem
.
The
hard
causes they brought unto Moses.
Ex. xviii. 26.
In which are some things
hard
to be understood.
2 Peter iii. 16.
3.
Difficult to accomplish; full of obstacles; laborious; fatiguing; arduous;
as, a
hard
task; a disease
hard
to cure.
4.
Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
The stag was too
hard
for the horse.
L’Estrange.
A power which will be always too
hard
for them.
Addison.
5.
Difficult to bear or endure; not easy to put up with or consent to; hence, severe; rigorous; oppressive; distressing; unjust; grasping;
as, a
hard
lot;
hard
times;
hard
fare; a
hard
winter;
hard
conditions or terms.
I never could drive a
hard
bargain.
Burke.
6.
Difficult to please or influence; stern; unyielding; obdurate; unsympathetic; unfeeling; cruel;
as, a
hard
master; a
hard
heart;
hard
words; a
hard
character.
7.
Not easy or agreeable to the taste; harsh; stiff; rigid; ungraceful; repelling;
as, a
hard
style
.
Figures
harder
than even the marble itself.
Dryden.
8.
Rough; acid; sour, as liquors;
as,
hard
cider
.
9.
(Pron.)
Abrupt or explosive in utterance; not aspirated, sibilated, or pronounced with a gradual change of the organs from one position to another; – said of certain consonants, as c in came, and g in go, as distinguished from the same letters in center, general, etc.
10.
Wanting softness or smoothness of utterance; harsh;
as, a
hard
tone
.
11.
(Painting)
(a)
Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
(b)
Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in the coloring or light and shade.
Syn. – Solid; arduous; powerful; trying; unyielding; stubborn; stern; flinty; unfeeling; harsh; difficult; severe; obdurate; rigid. See
Solid
, and
Arduous
.

Hard

,
adv.
[OE.
harde
, AS.
hearde
.]
1.
With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly.
And prayed so
hard
for mercy from the prince.
Dryden.
My father
Is
hard
at study; pray now, rest yourself.
Shakespeare
2.
With difficulty;
as, the vehicle moves
hard
.
3.
Uneasily; vexatiously; slowly.
Shak.
4.
So as to raise difficulties.
“The question is hard set.”
Sir T. Browne.
5.
With tension or strain of the powers; violently; with force; tempestuously; vehemently; vigorously; energetically;
as, to press, to blow, to rain
hard
; hence, rapidly; nimbly;
as, to run
hard
.
6.
Close or near.
Whose house joined
hard
to the synagogue.
Acts xviii. 7.
Hard by
,
near by
; close at hand; not far off.
“Hard by a cottage chimney smokes.”
Milton.
–
Hard pushed
,
Hard run
,
greatly pressed;
as, he was
hard pushed
or
hard run
for time, money, etc.
[Colloq.]
–
Hard up
,
closely pressed by want or necessity; without money or resources;
as,
hard up
for amusements
.
[Slang]
☞ Hard in nautical language is often joined to words of command to the helmsman, denoting that the order should be carried out with the utmost energy, or that the helm should be put, in the direction indicated, to the extreme limit, as, Hard aport! Hard astarboard! Hard alee! Hard aweather! Hard up!
Hard is also often used in composition with a participle; as, hard-baked; hard-earned;
hard
-featured; hard-working; hard-won.

Hard

(härd)
,
Verb.
T.
To harden; to make hard.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.

Hard

,
Noun.
A ford or passage across a river or swamp.

Webster 1828 Edition

Hard

H`ARD

, a.
1.
Firm; solid; compact; not easily penetrated, or separated into parts; not yielding to pressure; applied to material bodies, and opposed to soft; as hard wood; hard flesh; a hard apple.
2.
Difficult; not easy to the intellect.
In which are some things hard to be understood. 2 Pet.3.
The hard causes they brought to Moses. Ex. 18.
3.
Difficult of accomplishment; not easy to be done or executed. A hard task; a disease hard to cure.
Is any thing too hard for the Lord? Gen.18.
4.
Full of difficulties or obstacles; not easy to be traveled; as a hard way.
5.
Painful; difficult; distressing.
Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. Gen.35.
6.
Laborious; fatiguing; attended with difficulty or pain, or both; as hard work or labor; hard duty; hard service.
7.
Oppressive; rigorous; severe; cruel; as hard bondage; a hard master. Ex.1. Is. 14.
8.
Unfeeling; insensible; not easily moved by pity; not susceptible of kindness, mercy or other tender affections; as a hard heart.
9.
Severe; harsh; rough; abusive.
Have you given him any hard words of late?
10. Unfavorable; unkind; implying blame of another; as hard thoughts.
11. Severe; rigorous; oppressive. The enemy was compelled to submit to hard terms. So we say, a hard bargain; hard conditions.
12. Unreasonable; unjust. It is hard to punish a man for speculative opinions. It is a hard case.
13. Severe; pinching with cold; rigorous; tempestuous; as a hard winter; hard weather.
14. Powerful; forcible; urging; pressing close on.
The stag was too hard for the horse.
The disputant was too hard for his antagonist.
15. Austere; rough; acid; sour; as liquors.
The cider is hard.
16. Harsh; stiff; forced; constrained; unnatural.
Others--make the figures harder than the marble itself.
His diction is hard, his figures too bold.
17. Not plentiful; not prosperous; pressing; distressing; as hard times, when markets are bad, and money of course scarce.
18. Avaricious; difficult in making bargains; close. Matt.25.
19. Rough; of coarse features; as a hard face or countenance.
20. Austere; severe; rigorous.
21. Rude; unpolished or unintelligible.
A people of hard language. Ezek.3.
22. Coarse; unpalatable or scanty; as hard fare.

H`ARD

,
adv.
Close; near; as in the phrase,hard by. In this phrase,the word retains its original sense of pressed, or pressing.
[L. pressus.]
1.
With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; laboriously; earnestly; vehemently; importunately; as, to work hard for a living.
And pray'd so hard for mercy from the prince.
2.
With difficulty; as, the vehicle moves hard.
3.
Uneasily; vexatiously.
4.
Closely; so as to raise difficulties.
The question is hard set.
5.
Fast; nimbly; rapidly; vehemently; as, to run hard, that is, with pressure or urgency.
6.
Violently; with great force; tempestuously; as, the wind blows hard, or it blows hard.
7. With violence; with a copious descent of water; as, it rains hard.
8.
With force; as, to press hard.
Hard-a-lee, in seamen's language, an order to put the helm close to the lee side of the ship, to tack or keep her head to the wind; also, that situation of the helm.
Hard-a-weather, an order to put the helm close to the weather or windward side of the ship; also, that position of the helm.
Hard-a-port, an order to put the helm close to the larboard side of a ship.
Hard-a-starboard, an order to put the helm close to the starboard side of a ship.

Definition 2024

hard

hard

See also: härd and hård

English

Adjective

hard ‎(comparative harder, superlative hardest)

  1. (of material or fluid) Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.
    1. Resistant to pressure.
      This bread is so stale and hard, I can barely cut it.‎
    2. (of drink) Strong.
    3. (of water) High in dissolved chemical salts, especially those of calcium.
    4. (physics, of a ferromagnetic material) Having the capability of being a permanent magnet by being a material with high magnetic coercivity (compare soft).
  2. (personal or social) Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.
    1. Requiring a lot of effort to do or understand.
      a hard problem‎
      • 1988, An Oracle, Edmund White
        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.
      • 2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:
        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.
    2. Demanding a lot of effort to endure.
      a hard life‎
    3. Severe, harsh, unfriendly, brutal.
      a hard master;  a hard heart;  hard words;  a hard character‎
      don't be so hard on yourself‎
    4. (dated) Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
  3. Unquestionable.
    hard evidence‎
    • 2011 December 19, Kerry Brown, “Kim Jong-il obituary”, in The Guardian:
      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.
  4. (of a road intersection) 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. (slang, vulgar, of a male) Sexually aroused.
    I got so hard watching two hot girls wrestle each other on the beach.‎
  6. (bodybuilding) Having muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise.
  7. (phonetics, not comparable)
    1. Plosive.
      There is a hard c in "clock" and a soft c in "centre".‎
    2. Unvoiced
      Hard k, t, s, ch, as distinguished from soft, g, d, z, j.‎
    3. Velarized or plain, rather than palatalized
      The letter ж ‎(ž) in Russian is always hard.‎
  8. (art) 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.
  9. (not comparable) In the form of a hard copy.
    We need both a digital archive and a hard archive.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

  • Look at pages starting with hard.

Translations

Adverb

hard ‎(comparative harder, superlative hardest)

  1. (manner) With much force or effort.
    He hit the puck hard up the ice.
    They worked hard all week.
    At the intersection, bear hard left.
    The recession hit them especially hard.
    Think hard about your choices.
    • Dryden
      prayed so hard for mercy from the prince
    • Shakespeare
      My father / Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself.
    • 1985, Michael A. Arbib, In search of the person: philosophical explorations in cognitive science, page 119:
      What, then, of the voluntarist's sense that one often has to think long and hard before making agonizing choices?
  2. (manner) With difficulty.
    His degree was hard earned.
    The vehicle moves hard.
  3. (obsolete) So as to raise difficulties.
    • Sir Thomas Browne
      The question is hard set.
  4. (manner) Compactly.
    The lake had finally frozen hard.
  5. (now archaic) Near, close.
    • Bible, Acts xviii. 7
      whose house joined hard to the synagogue
    • 1999, George RR Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam 2011, page 418:
      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.

Translations

Noun

hard ‎(plural hards)

  1. (nautical) A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.
  2. (drugs, colloquial, slang) crack cocaine.

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: family · earth · live · #403: hard · ask · question · doubt

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ɑrt
  • Homophone: hart

Etymology

From Middle Dutch hart, from Old Dutch hart, from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kert-, *kret- ‎(“strong; powerful”). Compare German hart, English hard, Danish hård.

Adjective

hard ‎(comparative harder, superlative hardst)

  1. (objects) hard, strong
  2. (numismatics) strong, not easily devalued
  3. unquestionable, uncontestable
    harde feiten: hard facts
  4. (emotion) heartless, unsympathetic
  5. hard, difficult
    een harde strijd: a difficult fight
  6. (magnitude) harsh, heavy
    harde straffen: harsh punishments
    een harde regen: heavy rain
  7. (water) hard, rich in calcium

Inflection

Inflection of hard
uninflected hard
inflected harde
comparative harder
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial hard harder het hardst
het hardste
indefinite m./f. sing. harde hardere hardste
n. sing. hard harder hardste
plural harde hardere hardste
definite harde hardere hardste
partitive hards harders —

Antonyms

  • resistant to pressure: zacht

Derived terms

Adverb

hard

  1. (speed) fast, swiftly
    Ik heb een bekeuring gekregen omdat ik te hard heb gereden.
    I got a ticket because I drove too fast.
  2. very
  3. (noise) loudly

Verb

hard

  1. first-person singular present indicative of harden
  2. imperative of harden

French

Etymology

Borrowing from English hard

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /aʁd/

Adjective

hard m, f ‎(plural hards)

  1. (of pornography) hardcore
    Des photos hards.
    hardcore pictures.

Noun

hard m ‎(plural hards)

  1. hardcore pornography
    Le Journal du hard est une émission de Canal + dédiée au cinéma pornographique.‎
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Irish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [haːɾˠd̪ˠ]

Adjective

hard

  1. h-prothesized form of ard

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse harðr, from Proto-Germanic *harduz, Proto-Indo-European *kert-, *kret- ‎(“strong; powerful”).

Adjective

hard ‎(neuter singular hardt, definite singular and plural harde, comparative hardere, indefinite superlative hardest, definite superlative hardeste)

  1. hard (not soft)
  2. hard, stern, severe
  3. hardy

Related terms

Derived terms

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /haːr/ (example of pronunciation)

Etymology

From Old Norse harðr, from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kert-, *kret- ‎(“strong; powerful”).

Adjective

hard ‎(masculine and feminine hard, neuter hardt, definite singular and plural harde, comparative hardare, indefinite superlative hardast, definite superlative hardaste)

  1. hard
  2. hard, stern, severe
  3. hardy

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *harduz, whence also Old English heard, Old Dutch hart, Old Frisian herd, Old Norse harðr, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 ‎(hardus). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kert-, *kret- ‎(“strong; powerful”).

Adjective

hard (comparative hardiro, superlative hardist)

  1. hard

Declension




Derived terms

Descendants

Spanish

Adjective

hard ‎(invariable)

  1. hard, heavy, hardcore

Etymology

From Middle English hard, from Old English heard ‎(“hard”), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kert-, *kret- ‎(“strong; powerful”). Cognate with West Frisian hurd, Dutch hard, Old Saxon hard, hart, German hart, Danish hård.

Pronunciation

Similar Results