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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. Dispassionate
   "took a hard look"; "a hard bargainer"
    
3. Resisting weight or pressure
    
4. Produced without vibration of the vocal cords
   "hard consonants such as 'p' and 'k' and 's'";
   - unvoiced, voiceless, surd
    
5. (of light) transmitted directly from a pointed light source
   - concentrated
    
6. (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"
    
7. Very strong or vigorous
   "a hard left to the chin";
   - knockout, severe
    
8. 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]
    
9. Given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors
   "a hard drinker";
   - intemperate, heavy
    
10. Being distilled rather than fermented; having a high alcoholic content
    "hard liquor";
    - strong
     
11. Unfortunate or hard to bear
    "had hard luck";
    - tough
     
12. Dried out
    "hard dry rolls left over from the day before"
     
13. (of information) reliable and difficult to dispute
    "hard facts"; "we need some hard data"
     
14. [informal] (or a man or organ) sexually aroused
    "she made me hard"

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

Derived forms: hardest, harder

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, fix [informal], fractious, granitelike, granitic, hard-boiled, hardened, hard-fought, hardness, herculean, hole [informal], hornlike, horny, indulgent, insensitive, jam [informal], kettle of fish [informal], knotty, merciless, mess [informal], muddle [informal], nasty, petrous, pickle [informal], 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: lightly, soft

Encyclopedia: Hard, Fast and Beautiful