Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hard \Hard\, adv. [OE. harde, AS. hearde.]
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With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly.
And prayed so hard for mercy from the prince.
--Dryden.My father Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself.
--Shak. With difficulty; as, the vehicle moves hard.
Uneasily; vexatiously; slowly.
--Shak.So as to raise difficulties. ``The question is hard set.''
--Sir T. Browne.With tension or strain of the powers; violently; with force; tempestuously; vehemently; vigorously; energetically; as, to press, to blow, to rain hard; hence, rapidly; nimbly; as, to run hard.
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Close or near.
Whose house joined hard to the synagogue.
--Acts xviii. -
Hard by, near by; close at hand; not far off. ``Hard by a cottage chimney smokes.''
--Milton.Hard pushed, Hard run, greatly pressed; as, he was hard pushed or hard run for time, money, etc. [Colloq.]
Hard up, closely pressed by want or necessity; without money or resources; as, hard up for amusements. [Slang]
Note: Hard in nautical language is often joined to words of command to the helmsman, denoting that the order should be carried out with the utmost energy, or that the helm should be put, in the direction indicated, to the extreme limit, as, Hard aport! Hard astarboard! Hard alee! Hard aweather! Hard up! Hard is also often used in composition with a participle; as, hard-baked; hard-earned; hard-featured; hard-working; hard-won.
Wiktionary
adv. 1 (context colloquial English) Lacking money, impecunious, in financial difficulties. 2 (context colloquial English) Lacking anything. 3 (context colloquial English) desperate. alt. 1 (context colloquial English) Lacking money, impecunious, in financial difficulties. 2 (context colloquial English) Lacking anything. 3 (context colloquial English) desperate.
WordNet
adj. not having enough money to pay for necessities [syn: impecunious, in straitened circumstances(p), penniless, penurious, pinched]
Usage examples of "hard up".
If Susy was at a loose end, and hard up, why shouldn't she take charge of the children while their parents were in Italy?
She walked fast and hard up Hawthorne and through streets past 52ed.
Jem, rather taken by the novelty of the idea, and very hard up for a change, was as ready to ’.
The press, hasn't got it yet, but both the British and the French are hard up against it.
I suppose they're horribly hard up, the poor dears, and they thought a letter would do as well as a telegram.