adjective, -er, -est, adverb, -er, -est, noun | 1. | not soft; solid and firm to the touch; unyielding to pressure and impenetrable or almost impenetrable. |
| 2. | firmly formed; tight: a hard knot. |
| 3. | difficult to do or accomplish; fatiguing; troublesome: a hard task. |
| 4. | difficult or troublesome with respect to an action, situation, person, etc.: hard to please; a hard time. |
| 5. | difficult to deal with, manage, control, overcome, or understand: a hard problem. |
| 6. | involving a great deal of effort, energy, or persistence: hard labor; hard study. |
| 7. | performing or carrying on work with great effort, energy, or persistence: a hard worker. |
| 8. | vigorous or violent in force; severe: a hard rain; a hard fall. |
| 9. | bad; unendurable; unbearable: hard luck. |
| 10. | oppressive; harsh; rough: hard treatment. |
| 11. | austere; severe: a hard winter; the hard times of the Great Depression. |
| 12. | harsh or severe in dealing with others: a hard master. |
| 13. | difficult to explain away; undeniable: hard facts. |
| 14. | that can be verified; factual, as distinguished from speculation or hearsay: hard information. |
| 15. | harsh or unfriendly; resentful; severe; bitter: hard feelings; hard words. |
| 16. | of stern judgment or close examination; searching: a hard look. |
| 17. | lacking delicacy or softness; not blurred or diffused; clear and distinct; sharp; harsh: a hard line; a hard, bright light; hard features; a hard face. |
| 18. | (of a photograph) contrasty. |
| 19. | severe or rigorous in terms: a hard bargain. |
| 20. | sternly realistic; dispassionate; unsentimental: a hard, practical man; a hard view of life. |
| 21. | incorrigible; disreputable; tough: a hard character. |
| 22. | Scot. and North England. niggardly; stingy. |
| 23. | in coins or paper money as distinguished from checks, securities, promissory notes, or other negotiable instruments). |
| 24. | (of paper money or a monetary system) supported by sufficient gold reserves and easily convertible into the currency of a foreign nation. |
| 25. | (of money) scarce or available at high interest rates: a hard loan. |
| 26. | denoting assets with intrinsic value, as gold, silver, or diamonds. |
| 27. | (of alcoholic beverages)
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| 28. | (of wine) tasting excessively of tannin. |
| 29. | (of an illicit narcotic or drug) known to be physically addictive, as opium, morphine, or cocaine. |
| 30. | (of water) containing mineral salts that interfere with the action of soap. |
| 31. | (of bread and baked goods)
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| 32. | (of a fabric) having relatively little nap; smooth: Silk is a harder fabric than wool or cotton. |
| 33. | (of the landing of a rocket or space vehicle) executed without decelerating: a hard landing on the moon. Compare soft (def. 28). |
| 34. | (of a missile base) equipped to launch missiles from underground silos. |
| 35. | (of a missile) capable of being launched from an underground silo. |
| 36. | Military. being underground and strongly protected from nuclear bombardment. |
| 37. | Agriculture. noting wheats with high gluten content, milled for a bread flour as contrasted with pastry flour. |
| 38. | Phonetics.
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| 39. | (in the making of rope) noting a lay having a considerable angle to the axis of the rope; short. |
| 40. | Physics. (of a beam of particles or photons) having relatively high energy: hard x-rays. Compare soft (def. 29). |
| 41. | (of the penis) erect. |
| 42. | with great exertion; with vigor or violence; strenuously: to work hard; to try hard. |
| 43. | earnestly, intently, or critically: to look hard at a thing. |
| 44. | harshly or severely. |
| 45. | so as to be solid, tight, or firm: frozen hard. |
| 46. | with strong force or impact: She tripped and came down hard on her back. |
| 47. | in a deeply affected manner; with genuine sorrow or remorse: She took it very hard when they told her of his death. |
| 48. | closely; immediately: Failure and defeat seemed hard at hand. The decision to ban students from the concerts followed hard on the heels of the riot. |
| 49. | to an unreasonable or extreme degree; excessively; immoderately: He's hitting the bottle pretty hard. |
| 50. | Nautical. closely, fully, or to the extreme limit: hard aport; hard alee. |
| 51. | Nautical. a firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water. |
| 52. | British.
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| 53. | British Slang. hard labor. |
| 54. | be hard on, to deal harshly with; be stern: You are being too hard on him. |
| 55. | hard by, in close proximity to; near: The house is hard by the river. |
| 56. | hard of hearing. hearing-impaired. |
| 57. | hard put, in great perplexity or difficulty; at a loss: We were hard put to finish the examination in one hour. |
| 58. | hard up, Informal.
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