adjective
The cement gets hard in an hour. This steak is as hard as shoe-leather. The metal was so hard that I broke three drills trying to make a hole in it
Laying track for the railway is a very hard job
There were a lot of hard questions in the exam
Hemel is a hard taskmaster. Of the prison warders, each was harder than the next. He advocates taking a hard line against white-collar crime
The years of the Great Depression were hard for everyone
Shareholders should take a hard look at the annual report. Chapelle drives a hard bargain
Galpin is a very hard worker who gets a lot done
The hard fact is that the bill has never been paid
I'm afraid there were some hard words between us
She won't touch hard liquor
He later changed from marijuana to hard drugs
Note the hard edges of objects in Realist paintings
adverb
They always had to work very hard just to scrape by. He's hard at work writing his new book
Failing the examination hit him quite hard
The judge thought long and hard before passing sentence
It's going to go hard with her if she doesn't change her ways
He's so hard up he can't afford a decent meal
US