1. Not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure
   "why is it so hard for you to keep a secret?";
   - difficult
    
2. Resisting weight or pressure
   "The hard surface of the diamond made it ideal for industrial cutting"
    
3. Dispassionate
   "took a hard look"; "a hard bargainer"
    
4. Characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort
   "hard labour";
   - arduous, backbreaking, grueling [US], gruelling [Brit, Cdn], heavy, laborious, operose, punishing, toilsome, killing [informal]
    
5. Very strong or vigorous
   "a hard left to the chin";
   - knockout, severe
    
6. Unfortunate or hard to bear
   "had hard luck";
   - tough
    
7. Dried out
   "hard dry rolls left over from the day before"
    
8. Produced without vibration of the vocal cords
   "hard consonants such as 'p' and 'k' and 's'";
   - unvoiced, voiceless, surd
    
9. (of light) transmitted directly from a pointed light source
   "The hard light from the spotlight created sharp shadows";
   - concentrated
    
10. (of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward or touching the velum
    "Russian distinguished between hard consonants and palatalized or soft consonants"
     
11. Given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors
    "a hard drinker";
    - intemperate, heavy
     
12. Being distilled rather than fermented; having a high alcoholic content
    "hard liquor";
    - strong
     
13. (of information) reliable and difficult to dispute
    "we need some hard data"; "hard facts"
     
14. [informal] (or a man or organ) sexually aroused
    "she made me hard"

1. With effort, force or vigour
   "pressed hard on the lever"; "hit the ball hard"; "slammed the door hard"; "the team played hard"; "worked hard all day"
    
2. With firmness
   "held hard to the railing";
   - 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";
   - severely
    
5. Slowly and with difficulty
   "prejudices die hard";
   - hardly
    
6. To the full extent possible; all the way
   "swung the wheel hard left"; "hard alee"; "the ship went hard astern"
    
7. Very near or close in space or time
   "a strike followed hard upon the plant's opening"; "it stands hard by the railway tracks"; "they were hard on his heels"
    
8. With pain, distress or bitterness
   "he took the rejection very hard"
    
9. Indulging excessively
   "he drank hard";
   - heavily, intemperately
    
10. Into a solid condition
    "concrete that sets hard within a few hours"

Derived forms: harder, hardest

See also: adamantine, al dente, alcoholic, ambitious, arduous, awkward, bad, baffling, calculating, calculative, case-hardened, catchy, challenging, conniving, corneous, delicate, demanding, difficultness, difficulty, effortful, elusive, embarrassing, erect, exacting, fiendish, firm, fractious, granitelike, granitic, hard-boiled, hardened, hard-fought, hardness, herculean, hornlike, horny, indulgent, insensitive, knotty, merciless, nasty, petrous, problematic, problematical, rocklike, rocky, rough, rugged, scheming, semihard, serious, set, shrewd, solid, stale, steely, sticky, stonelike, stony, strong, tall, thorny, ticklish, tickly, tight, touchy, tough, tricky, troublesome, trying, tumid, unenviable, unmerciful, unyielding, velar, vexed, whispered, woody

Antonym: soft

Encyclopedia: Hard, Fast and Beautiful