(superl.) 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.
(superl.) Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily
apprehended, decided, or resolved; as a hard problem.
(superl.) Difficult to accomplish; full of obstacles; laborious;
fatiguing; arduous; as, a hard task; a disease hard to cure.
(superl.) Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
(superl.) 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.
(superl.) Difficult to please or influence; stern; unyielding;
obdurate; unsympathetic; unfeeling; cruel; as, a hard master; a hard
heart; hard words; a hard character.
(superl.) Not easy or agreeable to the taste; stiff; rigid;
ungraceful; repelling; as, a hard style.
(superl.) Rough; acid; sour, as liquors; as, hard cider.
(superl.) 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.
(superl.) Wanting softness or smoothness of utterance; harsh; as,
a hard tone.
(superl.) Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures;
formal; lacking grace of composition.
(superl.) Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in the coloring
or light and shade.
(adv.) With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly.
(adv.) With difficulty; as, the vehicle moves hard.
(adv.) Uneasily; vexatiously; slowly.
(adv.) So as to raise difficulties.
(adv.) With tension or strain of the powers; violently; with
force; tempestuously; vehemently; vigorously; energetically; as, to
press, to blow, to rain hard; hence, rapidly; as, to run hard.
(adv.) Close or near.
(v. t.) To harden; to make hard.
(n.) A ford or passage across a river or swamp.
