What does hard mean

Crossword clues for hard

hard

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

hard

I.adjective

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a cold/hard heart (=used about someone who does not feel sympathy for other people)

▪ It takes a hard heart not to be moved by these images of suffering.

a difficult/hard/tough decision

▪ In the end I took the difficult decision to retire early.

a dull/hard/heavy thud

▪ There was a dull thud as the box hit the floor.

a hard chair (=not comfortable)

▪ I sat on a hard chair in the corridor and waited.

a hard day (=difficult and tiring)

▪ Sit down – you look as though you’ve had a hard day.

a hard kick

▪ A hard kick to the knee could cause a lot of damage.

a hard stare (=very steady, with a lot of attention)

▪ As he passed, he gave us a hard stare.

a hard/heavy frost (=a severe frost)

▪ We’ve had three continuous nights of hard frost.

a hard/powerful punch

▪ My stomach took a couple of hard punches.

a hard/soft cover

▪ I never buy books in hard cover – they’re much more expensive.

a hard/soft wood

▪ Oak is a hard wood.

a hard/strong currency (=currency from a country with a strong economy)

▪ They accept American dollars and other hard currencies.

a tough/hard battle

▪ He faces a tough battle to prove his innocence.

be badly/severely/hard hit

▪ The company has been hard hit by the drop in consumer confidence.

be difficult/hard to judge

▪ The economic results of the reforms are difficult to judge.

be hard of hearing (=not be able to hear well)

▪ The subtitling service is intended for people who are hard of hearing.

be hard to bear

▪ The situation was very hard to bear.

be hard/difficult to imagine

▪ It’s hard to imagine the suffering she must have gone through.

be hard/easy/impossible etc to please

▪ She’s hard to please. Everything has to be perfect.

bit...hard

▪ Nina pushed her fist into her mouth and bit down hard.

blowing hard

▪ A cold breeze was blowing hard.

brake sharply/hard (=brake quickly)

▪ He braked sharply to avoid the dog.

breathe heavily/hard (=breathe loudly especially after exercise)

▪ He’d been running and he was breathing hard.

come down hard on

▪ We need to come down hard on young offenders.

cracking down hard

▪ The police are cracking down hard on violent crime.

difficult/hard

▪ Some of the questions in the last section were very difficult.

difficult/hard/easy etc to guess

▪ It’s hard to guess his age because he dyes his hair.

difficult/hard/impossible etc to credit

▪ We found his statement hard to credit.

easy/difficult/hard etc to follow

▪ The plot is a little difficult to follow.

find it hard/easy/difficult etc (to do sth)

▪ Hyperactive children find it difficult to concentrate.

firm/soft/hard etc mattress

▪ an old, lumpy mattress

hard bargaining

▪ The 4% pay raise was the result of some hard bargaining.

hard by

▪ in a house hard by the city gate

hard cash

hard cheese

▪ Use a hard cheese such as Cheddar for grating.

hard copy

hard core

▪ the hard core of the Communist party

hard court

hard currency

hard disk

hard drive

hard drugs (also class A drugs British English) (= strong drugs such as heroin, cocaine etc)

▪ He was in prison for dealing hard drugs.

hard drugs

hard evidence (=very clear evidence which proves that something is true)

▪ They have no hard evidence to support their claim.

hard facts (=information that is definitely true and can be proven)

▪ His theory is supported by hard facts.

hard graft

▪ Our success has been due to sheer hard graft.

hard hat

hard labour

hard muscles (=strong, firm muscles)

▪ the hard muscles of his back and shoulders

hard of hearing

hard porn

hard rock

hard sell

hard shoulder

hard site

hard slog

▪ months of hard slog

hard slog

▪ a long hard slog uphill

hard thinking

▪ Over the next two days a lot of hard thinking went into the campaign.

hard to come by

▪ Jobs were hard to come by.

hard to swallow (=difficult to believe)

▪ I found his story a bit hard to swallow.

hard to take

▪ Liz found his criticisms hard to take.

hard up

▪ I’m a bit hard up at the moment.

hard

▪ It hadn’t rained for weeks and the earth was hard.

hard

▪ The path has a hard surface suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs.

hard

▪ It’s been very hard work, but I’ve loved every moment of it.

hard (=containing a lot of calcium)

▪ Hard water is formed as rainwater passes down through layers of limestone.

hard

▪ She was trying hard not to show her impatience.

hard (=with a lot of mental effort)

▪ I bet, if you think really hard, you can think of something to do.

hard/difficult to pin down

▪ The flavour was hard to pin down.

hard/difficult to resist

▪ The temptation to follow them was hard to resist.

hard/difficult to stomach

▪ Rob found Cathy’s attitude hard to stomach.

hard/floppy/A etc drive

hard/rough/slow etc going

▪ I’m getting the work done, but it’s slow going.

hard/strenuous/vigorous exercise (=involving a lot of physical effort)

▪ Pregnant women should avoid strenuous exercise.

Hit...hard

▪ Hit the ball as hard as you can.

it is difficult/hard to cope

▪ We were finding it difficult to cope financially.

it is difficult/hard/impossible to exaggerate sth (=used to say that something cannot be made to seem more important etc than it already is)

▪ It is difficult to exaggerate the strength of people’s feelings on this matter.

it is hard/difficult to fault sb/sth

▪ You might not like O'Donnel’s arrogance, but it’s hard to fault what he does on the field.

it is hard/difficult to overestimate sth (=used to emphasize that something is very important)

▪ It is hard to overestimate the effect the war has had on these children.

it rains heavily/hard (=a lot of water comes down)

▪ It was raining heavily when we arrived in New York.

listen carefully/intently/hard etc

▪ The whole class was listening attentively.

▪ Liz stood still and listened hard very carefully.

long and hard (=hard, for a long time, before making a decision)

▪ I thought long and hard about taking the role.

long hard look (=examine very carefully)

▪ This month, take a long hard look at where your money is going.

push...hard

▪ Encourage your kids to try new things, but try not to push them too hard.

pushing hard

▪ He was pushing hard for welfare reform.

severe/hard/harsh (=very cold)

▪ In a hard winter, many birds starve.

stare hard/intently (=very steadily, with a lot of attention)

▪ She stared hard at him for a moment.

swallowed hard

▪ Leo swallowed hard and walked into the room.

take a tough/firm/hard line on sth

▪ The school takes a very tough line on drugs.

the hard/easy part

▪ Deciding what you're going to cook is the easy part.

tough/hard

▪ He said he expected the race to be tough.

try your best/hardest (=make as much effort as possible)

▪ Try your best to block out other distractions.

work...hard

▪ I’m going to have to work really hard to pass these exams.

working hard

▪ The company is working hard to improve its image.

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ NOUN

case

▪ Epiphone Sheraton, sunburst, including hard case, £250.

▪ A hard case, he thought.

▪ Of course they will, but in hard cases judges must make controversial judgments of political morality whichever conception of law they hold.

▪ These are, indeed, hard cases to win.

▪ A hard case calls for decision.

▪ Conventionalism fails here as it fails in cross-section, in explaining how particular hard cases like our samples are debated and decided.

▪ Also old but usable Jazz Bass hard case.

▪ Fender Strat, white with hard case, £175.

cash

▪ Intellectuals were called on to transform their knowledge into hard cash.

▪ Luckily, the chatter of cold hard cash later persuaded the state to sell the name to the highest bidder.

▪ John's role was to get together as much hard cash as possible.

▪ Two Model Village awards will not suffice our merchants for cold, hard cash.

▪ Chamois and crystal hunters began to convert their mountain skills into hard cash by becoming mountain guides for the more adventurous tourists.

▪ The social types turned out en masse to cheer on their friends and to put a little hard cash on the line.

▪ For the City has not been prepared to back his business with hard cash.

▪ There was very little hard cash.

copy

▪ The Stand-alone Hard Copy system allows the user to produce, on suitable media, hard copies of online modules.

▪ A hard copy map of their course was spread out over the console before him.

▪ The hard copy volume is deleted from the hard copy directory regardless of whether it has been accepted or rejected.

▪ Note that modules can only be hard copied if they are online and can not be nominated for hard copy individually.

▪ This utility allows you to alter images in such a way as to produce the best possible hard copy from your printer.

▪ These hard copy keywords must be entered as the final keywords in the configuration file.

▪ The full size terminal can store up to 37 Prestel pages in memory for review or printing to hard copy.

▪ Three departments attempt to keep the use of hard copy to a minimum by extensive use of online services.

core

▪ The other kind of move that is ruled out is one that violates the hard core, as we have already mentioned.

▪ There are not, however, too many hard core pumpernickel types left, certainly not enough to support small bakeries.

▪ The hard core of Newtonian physics is comprised of Newton's laws of motion plus his law of gravitational attraction.

▪ I believed the drill instructor was hard core, nose to the grindstone, always screaming and shouting.

▪ The plotters represented the hard core of the right wing.

▪ I would like to add to this that we could totally eradicate the hard core of the crisis by the year 2000.

▪ Order is maintained by the inviolability of the hard core of a programme and by the positive heuristic that accompanies it.

▪ Others are on the run with their families, leaving a hard core to take their guns and guard their property.

currency

▪ They could be purchased with hard currency but not roubles.

▪ Pizza is the hard currency of our relationship with these children.

▪ From Sept. 15 foreigners were forbidden to export scarce consumer goods, unless purchased for hard currency.

▪ No tax is involved in these countries, and holding the plan offshore means you can use hard currency.

▪ Repatriation of profits would be possible by converting roubles into hard currency on the new exchanges.

▪ Trade with other former members of Comecon is to be in hard currency, if it takes place at all.

▪ Would it not continue to need the hard currency and expertise which a westernised Hong Kong attracted?

▪ According to the Treaty, non-signatories would have to pay hard currency for their imports from the new Soviet Union.

day

▪ Next time we'd come prepared for longer, harder days.

▪ Floral print After a hard day in the garden, come in and relax on beautiful tapestry cushions designed by Kaffe Fassett.

▪ And the few shillings earned was more than welcome in those hard days.

▪ A bit of companionship with fellow climbers and walkers is just the job at the end of a hard day.

decision

▪ He made the hard decision to abandon the Old World.

▪ They say it must have been such a hard decision.

▪ But it was a hard decision.

▪ This, too, was a hard decision because Gary Stevens merited prime consideration.

▪ In old age Ramsey looked back and knew that this was the hardest decision of his life.

▪ The officials who are retiring or were defeated had to make hard decisions after the flood.

▪ The hard decisions need to be taken early.

▪ Apart from this, the 1994 budget's main feature is to put off some hard decisions on weapons-procurement.

disk

▪ It tells you which files belonging to which programs are on your hard disk and it can also compress files.

▪ The hard disk drive is fast, too, with its own on-board cache.

▪ A hard disk enables the microcomputer to store vast amounts of information on disk.

▪ Grimmer agents were saying it was a case of an entirely lost hard disk.

▪ So they use a section of that old hard disk to store the overflow.

▪ Some one has suffered a trashed hard disk or corrupted file or lost an important configuration setting.

drive

▪ Is the hard drive from a reputable manufacturer?

▪ It will also move a program from one hard drive to another or from one computer to another.

▪ In the next window, browse to the file's location on your hard drive and select it, then click Next.

▪ The hard drive is slower than the one on the Dell.

▪ This includes the serial and parallel ports, the hard drive, the screen and finally, the whole machine.

▪ The other kind is disk storage, commonly on a hard drive or floppy disk.

▪ It is important to keep your disks in order, especially hard drives which hold lots of information.

▪ A cookie is simply a small data file on your hard drive.

drug

▪ Dealing in drugs, particularly hard drugs, is not an activity condoned by any of the community organisations on the estate.

▪ No topless dancers, no hard drugs, no trial.

▪ Our reporters uncovered a generation who have been sucked into a dark underworld of solvent abuse and hard drugs.

▪ Tobacco and alcohol are far more harmful than the so-called hard drugs, heroin and cocaine.

▪ Is it fair to equate alcohol with hard drugs?

▪ He accepted that legalisation would not necessarily greatly increase addiction to hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

▪ The linking of alcohol and hard drugs confuses health education messages.

▪ She warned that even the first injection of hard drugs can kill.

edge

▪ X100's body will be rounded and sculpted, with soft, flowing lines and no hard edges or chrome highlights.

▪ The demonstrations, meanwhile, began to take on a harder edge in recent weeks.

▪ She remains gutsy throughout presenting a harder edge to previous Ritas I have seen.

▪ He had a hard edge to his voice.

▪ Flats are suitable for larger strokes, holding a good charge of pigment and are good for hard edges.

▪ Her smile broadened, lost its hard edge.

▪ These can be made tighter by running the material over a hard edge to squeeze the coils.

▪ Touched the hard edge of diamonds.

evidence

▪ Developers and investors seek to reduce risk, and a key influence on their thinking will be hard evidence of success.

▪ There is no hard evidence of files spirited away and even if they were, nobody knows whether they contain anything sinister.

▪ This was a pseudo-historical theory for which there was no hard evidence.

▪ The board reported in March that there is little hard evidence about the amount of this new type of fraud.

▪ But, again, the commission found no hard evidence that Mr Wahid had lied or misused the money.

▪ There are surely many answers to this question, not one of which is impeccably established by hard evidence.

▪ At present, there is considerable speculation about developments in the Corridor but little hard evidence.

▪ To what extent is it founded on hard evidence?

fact

▪ We supply the hard facts so you can do-it-yourself.

▪ The hard fact is that computers are complicated, and always will be.

▪ Cultural differences Cultural differences are often the hardest facts for expatriates to accept.

▪ The time zone changes as we went west further increased our sensation that time was no longer a hard fact.

▪ So what are the hard facts?

▪ But in the mutable world of the modern organization, major decisions are seldom made solely on the basis of hard facts.

▪ It was a greatly respected and slightly feared publication, dealing in hard fact, abrasive as Maggie herself was abrasive.

▪ Ultimately, the answers lie in the hard fact that racism and sexism remain powerful currents in our national life.

hat

▪ You haven't got hard hats on.

▪ If hydrogen sulfide or some other poisonous gas is detected, Donahue dons an airtight breathing device and a hard hat.

▪ However, cyclists make a good example because they too are starting to wear hard hats.

▪ When no vapors are present, he simply wears the hard hat.

▪ All men on site will be required to wear hard hats and safety boots at all times within the designated areas.

▪ Radio across town were handing out hard hats for a press tour of their nearly completed Beverly Hills facility.

▪ A hard hat can protect you from having a metal spike go through your skull and into your brain.

▪ I had to put my hard hat on and go to work.

hit

▪ Graham Cowdrey kept the runs flowing with a hard hit 88.

▪ Particularly hard hit would be relatives of immigrants legally in the United States.

▪ The number of job offerings was down 11% from the previous year, with studio teaching positions particularly hard hit.

▪ New Jersey and New York will be especially hard hit.

▪ Andy, whose estranged wife Fergie has caused much of the dismay, could be the hardest hit.

▪ Countries not so reliant on oil because of lack of industrial development can be hard hit indirectly.

▪ Among the hardest hit has been Aerospace, which faces a tough time over the next two to three years.

▪ Californians have been particularly hard hit.

labour

▪ And hard labour ... the railway navvies remembered by a rock band.

▪ Charged with obscenity the magistrates gave them six months hard labour each.

▪ Workers who lose their jobs are sent to farm camps, along with bureaucrats doing two weeks' hard labour.

▪ The Vote reported one incident of child assault in Surrey, where a man was sentenced to only four months hard labour.

▪ But the hard labour for criminals which replaced judicial execution was so appalling that it was in effect a living death.

▪ However, an extra month's hard labour made good the loss.

▪ He was given six months' hard labour after he refused on principle to pay the fine.

▪ Theo took a shorter journey-to Wormwood Scrubs, where he did four months' hard labour.

life

▪ He said he'd had a hard life.

▪ He had a hard life on the island.

▪ She married him, had two children in two years and, she says, endured a hard life.

▪ They led a very hard life, always hungry, sometimes without food for several days.

▪ She too is seventy but looks like a thirty-four-year-old who led a very hard life.

▪ Graham had a hard life from childhood.

▪ She knew that Jonnie had had a hard life.

line

▪ Use a cotton bud to blend the colours together, so there are no hard lines.

▪ But regulators are taking a harder line these days.

▪ Scott ignored his insult and continued walking, his face set in hard lines.

▪ I have suffered as a result of this merciless hard line plenty of times myself.

▪ For both sides in this conflict have returned to the hardest of hard lines.

▪ But the Clinton administration is still taking a hard line.

▪ De Gaulle took a hard line towards the strike.

▪ But both sides are taking a hard line.

look

▪ This can only be assessed by examining the meaning of hard look more closely.

▪ He ignored her and threw a hard look at me: I better not tell.

▪ I gave him a hard look.

▪ Clarisa gave her a hard look.

▪ She wanted some one outside Orkney to take a long, hard look at what was happening within the islands.

▪ The hard look that seems wrong on a face so young was suddenly gone.

▪ The next stage is to take a long, hard look at yourself.

▪ The next time you see a personal computer, take a long, hard look.

man

▪ Of course Jeeves would disapprove: but then he is a hard man to please.

▪ He had to be diplomat, psychologist, hard man, soft man, entrepreneur, spiritual leader, general and peacekeeper.

▪ But Cooper is more than a hard man.

▪ In the video Jones is, in the main, observing rather than advocating the ruthless antics of the hard men.

▪ Secondly, the band launched heavy metal hard man Ted Nugent, one of rock's more notable characters.

▪ Unlike everybody else, however, the hard man did not look up the neighbourhood exorcist in Thompson's Local Directory.

▪ It was all pleasantly noisy without any air of aggression, there were no yobs or self-styled hard men among the customers.

▪ Wimbledon's hard man ran across the pitch to point threateningly at Middlesbrough assistant manager John Pickering.

part

▪ The harder parts gave a much more satisfactory finish with clean shiny cutter marks even in the interlocking grain.

▪ In fact, the hardest part is getting the printer out of the box.

▪ The hard part was in the years to come.

▪ The creation of these lunar ephemerides turned out to be the hardest part of the problem.

▪ The hard part is sorting the good memories from the bad.

▪ The hard part would be working it into her schedule.

▪ The hardest part is finding a provider that supports it.

▪ That had been the hard part, immensely hard, getting the permission.

rock

▪ It is very difficult dealing with fractures and dislocations which have happened on fairly hard rock climbs.

▪ Its overhanging walls provide a number of hard rock climbs.

▪ They still play honest hard rock, but now it sounds fresher and has thousands of hard edges.

▪ The harder rocks stand out as ledges, the softer ones form steep slopes.

▪ In an area with such rapid changes in temperature as to erode hard rock into sand, soft shells would not have survived.

▪ Erosion of hard rocks is usually very different.

▪ Differential erosion of the rocks has resulted in the hard rocks being left as peaks separated by deeply eroded valleys and ravines.

shoulder

▪ She wanted to give in, weaken, her eyes closing and her fingers curling on his hard shoulders.

▪ He left her on the hard shoulder, near Epping, Essex, saying she would only have to wait 15 minutes.

▪ The two children, Mark in Georgina's arms, were spotted along the hard shoulder.

▪ I pictured a man taking leave of his motor; wobbling from the fast lane towards the hard shoulder.

▪ He pulled up on the hard shoulder, switched off and got out.

▪ The body of the pregnant housewife was found near the M-50 motorway after her car broke down on the hard shoulder.

thing

▪ Well, it is the hardest thing for humans to do, Lord.

▪ The hardest thing about snowshoeing is getting the tethered shoe attached securely to your feet.

▪ They usually seem disappointed when I confess that the hardest thing to deal with is lack of sleep.

▪ The hardest thing I ever did was leave.

▪ How he could just sit there in that silence was the hardest thing I have ever tried to figure out.

▪ The hardest thing for most women to accept now is the white shoe.

▪ Mystification is simple; clarity is the hardest thing of all.

▪ In fact, the hardest thing for a great many people is to win.

time

▪ By Hugh Hebert COMEDY-thrillers could have a hard time without small black books that disappear containing the clue to mysterious fortunes.

▪ Somehow with the right count Glover had a harder time believing any ofit was real.

▪ Her stepdaughter was only twelve, still a child, and a child who had had a hard time.

▪ For Uncle Allen the truly hard times seemed all behind him.

▪ However, you would not get £149.95p each if you fell on hard times and wanted to sell your sovereigns.

▪ Then agents have a hard time distinguishing illegal aliens from others, he said.

▪ The 1930s were hard times, so I think they will be forgiven for this slight oversight.

▪ With this theme, I had a hard time working in math and science.

times

▪ But Johnny Herbert's had his fair share of hard times.

▪ His large manufacturing company was in the throes of hard times.

▪ If nothing else, the bank's comical detachment from real life may prove a comfort in these hard times.

▪ The dean himself was incredible in guiding me through some hard times.

▪ The Cambridge University Automobile Club had clearly fallen on hard times, too.

▪ For Uncle Allen the truly hard times seemed all behind him.

▪ The hard times foreseen by Nicholas senior now came.

▪ Stories about hard times teach the value of perseverance and hard work.

water

▪ Scum is formed when soaps and detergents react with hard water.

▪ It is very sensitive to calcium and does not do well in alkaline or hard water.

▪ It is tolerant of most water conditions, although very hard water may result in the fish's eyes becoming cloudy.

▪ It also grows well in soft as well as medium hard water.

▪ Water condition: Very indifferent to conditions, but medium hard water with slight acidity is preferred.

▪ They withstand artificial illumination well not only from above but also from the sides and are indifferent to moderately hard water.

way

▪ It must be won, and won the hard way.

▪ Indefatigable, playing the hard way, with his own set of rules to back him up.

▪ I learned this the hard way.

▪ I've been in and out of places, I've had to learn the hard way.

▪ What followed was three years of adults learning the hard way about performance and change.

▪ I was brought up the hard way.

▪ I have done it the hard way.

work

▪ This is hard work which Karen and her assistants tackle with enthusiasm and dexterity.

▪ Perhaps his / her more modest achievements are indeed due to hard work and a love of learning.

▪ A short spell of hard work in quiet surroundings would not be a bad thing.

▪ Success comes from hard work, dedication, teamwork, discipline.

▪ How good of you to do all that work - and it is such hard work!

▪ He had worked hard all his life, and hard work always gave him tangible results.

▪ The hard work of preparation was punctuated by various diversions.

▪ Everyone complained about the heat and the flies and the hard work, but Luna complained less than the rest of us.

worker

▪ Since then he has shown every sign of being a pragmatist, an adroit politician and a very hard worker.

▪ He is supposedly not the hardest worker ever.

▪ She was known to be very tough and a very hard worker.

▪ He was a good, hard worker.

▪ He made Mrs Timms look uninterested in her store, the Reliance Market, and she was a hard worker.

▪ The personnel officer read out the relevant paragraph: Muriel is a hard worker and does well when working on her own.

▪ Children who understand the importance of work tend to imitate their parents and become hard workers themselves.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

(hard/hot/close) on sb's heels

(hard/hot/close) on the heels of sth

▪ Critique followed hot on the heels of this pioneering work.

▪ On the heels of this came Mr J. to tell us that young Mrs P. had had her thighbone crushed.

▪ Then it seemed that the consummation would follow soon on the heels of its inauguration.

▪ With another couple of laps he might have finished close on the heels of the two Dunlops.

a difficult/hard/good etc one

▪ But what is temperament, and how do we define what is a good one?

▪ I knew there was no sense in trying to do a better one.

▪ Maybe it was a crackpot theory, but it was a good one.

▪ Nevertheless, it was always clear that Schmidt's third term in office would prove a difficult one.

▪ Payno was gleeful, for his idea was a good one.

▪ The belief that hierarchical organizational structure makes for good business is a difficult one to give up.

▪ The Berlin Philharmonic as it exists today may be a happier orchestra, but it is in no way a better one.

▪ Then I became a lead project manager and, I have to say, I was a good one.

a hard/tough etc act to follow

▪ Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow.

▪ Colm Toibin's piece will be a hard act to follow but I suspect you are up to it.

▪ I know that she will be a tough act to follow.

▪ It was a hard act to follow, but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.

▪ John's is, of course, a hard act to follow.

▪ The new model has a tough act to follow.

▪ You've certainly set us a hard act to follow!

a hard/tough nut to crack

▪ Daytime television is a tough nut to crack. New shows have to be good enough to beat the old favorites.

▪ Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.

▪ Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.

▪ West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.

a hard/tough row to hoe

▪ Improving schools with little funding is a tough row to hoe.

▪ They have a hard row to hoe.

a hard/tough sell

as hard/tough as nails

▪ Willie O'Connor is as hard as nails and Liam Simpson takes no prisoners.

bad/difficult/hard etc enough

▪ Even a Patel, probably a Bhatt if I looked hard enough.

▪ It's bad enough trying to fly with unequal line lengths; having an asymmetric kite can be most frustrating!

▪ She identified the problem not as trying too hard to live up to a domestic ideal but as not trying hard enough.

▪ Since the cold war ended in 1988, they have worked hard enough to produce some kind of an economic miracle.

▪ That was going to be difficult enough anyway.

▪ The ties with the past difficult enough to sever already.

▪ This would be bad enough if California prisons were full of nothing but Charles Mansons.

bad/hard/tough luck

▪ Can't have that, can we, not on top of all your other hard luck.

▪ He felt that this little piece of bad luck might affect his whole day.

▪ I kept looking into the mirror and hating my bad luck, but there they were.

▪ There were lots of near misses: some great saves from both keepers, and sheer bad luck.

▪ Unfortunately, the gents had bad luck.

▪ You go up there with the wrong attitude and come out with worse luck than you had before.

be (stuck) between a rock and a hard place

be a hard act to follow

▪ Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow.

▪ Colm Toibin's piece will be a hard act to follow but I suspect you are up to it.

▪ It was a hard act to follow, but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.

▪ Judith will be a hard act to follow.

be a hard/stern/tough taskmaster

▪ If self-employment is any guide, the dejobbed worker is likely to be a stern taskmaster.

▪ She was a hard taskmaster but a considerably fairer one than la Belle Ethel.

▪ True to his word, he schooled her in horsemanship and was a hard taskmaster.

better/harder/worse etc still

▪ And 245 specialty stock funds that focus on particular industries did better still, averaging a 6. 5 percent gain.

▪ But perhaps the early evening was better still?

▪ He didn't talk because he was afraid of losing the pole or, worse still, falling in.

▪ I started to hunt for a cheap restaurant or, better still, a snack shop.

▪ I thought that it would soon pass, and it did - for you to work harder still.

▪ Or better still, make a real talent show instead.

▪ Or better still, there was the village school practically next door!

▪ With hindsight, it would have better still to lock in a few more gains.

fall on hard/bad times

▪ At 21 she is set for stardom, but she still finds time for people who have fallen on hard times.

▪ Even by political standards, Gingrich very quickly fell on hard times.

▪ I assumed that if a person fell on hard times some one else in the wider family would rescue them.

▪ Interestingly, though, the bottom 10 includes many household names fallen on hard times.

▪ The Cambridge University Automobile Club had clearly fallen on hard times, too.

▪ The model cities program fell on hard times soon after it began.

▪ With the outbreak of war, the shop fell on harder times.

▪ Worse, because of Jack the father has fallen on hard times and must meet all kinds of debts.

good/hard/quick etc worker

▪ He is supposedly not the hardest worker ever.

▪ He made Mrs Timms look uninterested in her store, the Reliance Market, and she was a hard worker.

▪ He was a good, hard worker.

▪ She was known to be very tough and a very hard worker.

▪ She was such a hard worker and a wonderful cook.

▪ The girl was a good worker who came and went quietly about her business.

it's difficult/hard to believe (that)

▪ Female speaker It's hard to believe it's happened.

▪ It's hard to believe another child could do such a thing.

▪ It's hard to believe just how dire it is.

▪ It's hard to believe Marie's got a husband.

▪ It's hard to believe now but I actually made do with hooks for a while!

▪ It's hard to believe that he started painting in World War Two and is still painting today.

▪ It's hard to believe, but we're fast approaching the dessert hour.

▪ The ideological points are still there but it's hard to believe that totalitarian regimentation could be so tight.

learn (sth) the hard way

▪ I learned the hard way that drugs weren't an answer to my problems.

▪ But, as Server shows us, he learned apathy the hard way.

▪ Early on he learned - the hard way - that it was the passport to success.

▪ He learned this the hard way, when he tried to move his head.

▪ I learned that the hard way, by losing a couple of first drafts of articles I was writing.

▪ I learned this the hard way.

▪ Mainline medicine learned this the hard way when it first started to use anesthetics.

▪ She had learned it the hard way and she never let her guard slip at all.

▪ The Lisa designers also learned this the hard way, and their computer shipped with 1024K, or a megabyte of memory.

make heavy/hard work of sth

▪ She was making hard work of plucking the goose.

▪ You can make hard work of an easy job if you don't know the right way to go.

old habits die hard

▪ But old habits die hard, and Apple has shown a proclivity to chase market share while hand-wringing over shrinking gross margins.

▪ It was probably unnecessary, she thought, but old habits died hard.

▪ Things were going well, but old habits die hard.

old habits/traditions/customs die hard

▪ But old habits die hard, and Apple has shown a proclivity to chase market share while hand-wringing over shrinking gross margins.

▪ It was probably unnecessary, she thought, but old habits died hard.

▪ Perhaps because it's an island old customs die hard here.

▪ Things were going well, but old habits die hard.

▪ This is an area where old customs die hard.

pack a (hard/hefty/strong etc) punch

▪ A wave 10 feet high and 500 feet long can pack a punch of 400,000 pounds per linear foot of its crest.

▪ Anne Packer packed a punch with Baked Beans.

▪ At last - takeaway sandwiches with flavour that packs a punch!

▪ For the first time in a long time, an Eddie Murphy movie packs a punch.

▪ The paper is light; it doesn't pack a punch.

play hard to get

▪ You should call her again - I think she's just playing hard to get.

▪ And they may not just be playing hard to get.

▪ I am not going to suggest that you play hard to get.

▪ If it was Viola, she was obviously playing hard to get.

▪ It had nothing to do with teasing or playing hard to get.

tough/hard nut

▪ Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.

▪ Back, now, to the hard nuts.

▪ Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.

▪ One glance was all it took to realise this was one hard nut to crack - his features still completely impassive.

▪ Shearer, a tough nut not inclined to whinge, said his ankle was like a pudding.

▪ Tax will be an even tougher nut.

▪ West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.

work sb hard

▪ Sometimes I think that they work us too hard in this office.

▪ The bank's managers admit that they work their employees hard, but on the other hand they pay good wages.

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

▪ a hard mattress

▪ a piece of hard candy

▪ A tiled floor in the kitchen is as hard as stone, and very cold beneath your feet.

▪ As people age, their skin becomes harder and less supple.

▪ Chemistry was one of the hardest classes I've ever taken.

▪ Diamond is probably the hardest substance known to man.

▪ Give the door a hard push.

▪ He's a hard man to work for, but he's fair.

▪ I've cooked the potatoes for half an hour but they still seem a bit hard.

▪ I find it hard to believe that he didn't know the gun was loaded.

▪ I thought the exam was really hard.

▪ I wish this chair wasn't so hard and uncomfortable.

▪ It's hard to see the stage from here.

▪ It's not my fault, John. Don't give me a hard time.

▪ It was hard for me to understand her - her accent was very strong.

▪ It was a long hard walk back to the nearest town.

▪ Keep the cake in a tin, to prevent it from going hard.

▪ Let your mother sit down. She's had a hard day at work.

▪ Mowing the lawn is hard work.

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

▪ A hard disk is usually built into the computer and is a slightly different form of storage.

▪ But the Clinton administration is still taking a hard line.

▪ Instead it meant hard work with a capital H for all the fifteen or so staff.

▪ Some hard cheeses are permitted to age.

▪ The slickest feature of all is the fully poweroperated hard top.

▪ Toilet roll, used, in small smelly brown-streaked sheets - both the hard kind and the soft kind.

▪ Yes, exhibitions are hard work!

II.adverb

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ VERB

bite

▪ Lily put her fist in her mouth and bit hard on her fingers.

▪ She twisted her mouth in a cry of sheer ecstasy and bit hard on her lip.

▪ Her teeth bit hard into her lower lip.

▪ The boy smiled faintly, and then bit hard on his lips and gnawed the smile away.

brake

▪ Doyle swerved, running the car on to the right hand verge, and braked hard.

▪ Clayt braked hard, pulled off and cut the engine.

▪ But he might still have been able to stop in time if he'd braked hard enough.

▪ Desperate not to have to overtake, he'd braked hard and had felt the car shimmy dangerously.

▪ He braked hard to a halt outside the Co-op in Newtown, just as Billy and Mary turned the comer.

▪ Streuer had to brake hard, and on purpose he just nudged my backside with the front of his bike.

▪ He braked hard and managed to stop before impact, but the woman fell on to the road in front of his car.

▪ He almost missed the turning off the taxiway to the runway and had to brake hard at the last minute.

breathe

▪ Lachy sat down on the pillow at the head of the bed, breathing hard.

▪ Lincoln jumped up and down, breathing hard.

▪ The horror receded as she came back to reality, breathing hard, glad of her cream duvet and calm hotel surroundings.

▪ He looked, breathing hard still, at Oliver.

▪ He was breathing hard, and Joe thought he was even sweating.

▪ Ezra stepped then stopped, breathing hard.

▪ He stared at her for a second in stunned silence, breathing hard, his eyes dazed.

fight

▪ Belfast was one which fought hard and played great football.

▪ For years we fought hard against the police attitude not to treat this as a crime.

▪ I hoped to keep one of them alive for questioning, but they fought hard.

▪ The president fought hard for the plan, and saw it through Congress by mid-March.

▪ Cnut's men had fought hard, and doubtless expected to be remunerated accordingly.

▪ I fought hard for the right to be right.

▪ She fought hard to get him a part-time playgroup place in the group his older brother attended.

▪ She was fighting hard not to be unpleasant.

hit

▪ But the high interest rate policy and squeeze on retailers hit hard.

▪ I hit hard at the inadequacies in housing in the city.

▪ Firms and institutions which are otherwise financially sound could be hard hit by a protracted run of debt defaults.

▪ Hideo Nomo, who was hit hard in his last start, is scheduled to start again Monday against the Florida Marlins.

▪ Ray Gasson's herd of 250 could have been hard hit.

▪ Among the other vegetables hit hard were cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers and sweet corn.

▪ If a ban is approved, the famous Beaufort hunt will be hard hit.

▪ But then the booze started hitting hard, and I got really scared.

listen

▪ We are listening hard to its recommendations and we take seriously the points that it makes to us.

▪ Maybe an illness, he thought, listening hard.

▪ Now, when Tallis listened hard, she could hear a drum being beaten as a warning.

▪ He listened hard, shook his head.

▪ On the way, Endill listened hard in case the Headmaster was wandering about.

▪ No, the White House has been listening hard to how people think things look, and devising plans to fit.

▪ He pressed his ear against the receiver and listened hard.

look

▪ Though still handsome, he looked hard, ruthless, and twice as dangerous as Isabel remembered.

▪ I looked hard at the target and raised the gun, stared at the target, closed my eyes, and fired.

▪ Consequently she looked hard for work away from Marlott.

▪ Connors looked hard at the gun, but said nothing.

▪ Even a Patel, probably a Bhatt if I looked hard enough.

▪ We have again looked hard at our working practices and cost base and have made substantial changes.

▪ He looked hard at the outline of the body under the rug.

play

▪ Work hard but play hard, too-you deserve to celebrate.

▪ All he wants to do is play hard.

▪ Apparently all 22 players could read, and they all realized that they needn't bother to play hard any more.

▪ Most of all, they have to continue working and playing hard.

▪ The Cougars played hard, but not always smart.

▪ We just have to go out and play hard every night.

▪ This is what she likes to see: good, hard playing, everyone working the floor, tough defense.

▪ Westphal had two rules: be on time and play hard, and the first rule was flexible.

press

▪ The new strike partnership of Saunders and substitute Dwight Yorke failed to make an immediate impression as Ipswich pressed hard.

▪ You will be hard pressed to choose a single main course because so many are mouth-watering.

▪ These expectations were nurtured by the adversarial nature of electoral competition and they pressed hard on to government.

▪ They point to long-term costs that even a thriving enterprise would be hard pressed to minimize or absorb.

▪ The statue was unreasonably heavy, pressing hard against him.

▪ The Dwarfs were hard pressed at first, but eventually saw the Orcs off with the help of their formidable cannons.

▪ He was pressing hard on the button and standing patiently for the door to open.

▪ One is hard pressed even to find them in London.

push

▪ They responded by pushing hard into corporate finance, seeking to use shareholdings as a door-opener.

▪ However, Thompson questioned whether the administration will push hard if resistance stiffens.

▪ Brian was pushed hard against the side of a car parked in the far corner of the bar's car park.

▪ I fell back, like a person pushed hard.

▪ Missing are neighborhood and business associations: two groups that pushed hard during the former administration for a crackdown on nuisance crimes.

▪ Big agricultural businesses, primarily in California, pushed hard for the temporary workers.

▪ Each pushed hard against the other.

put

▪ Commentators were hard put to find words to describe the ceremonial splendor of the final event.

▪ Nevertheless, an ordinary person might be hard put to tell one from the other.

▪ Governments will then be hard put to get it on to their national statute books by mid-1993.

▪ Without this map we'd be hard put to find our way.

▪ Yet had she been asked what that destination was she would have been hard put to it to answer.

▪ Now we were hard put to find a grubby corner of the upper dock in which to berth Venturous.

▪ Many modern offerings are hard put to please the eye quite so much.

stare

▪ They were both staring hard at me.

▪ I felt something akin to the tender hatred one can sense when staring hard at a photograph of oneself.

▪ He stared hard at pictures held out to him, trying to decipher their language.

▪ Red is staring hard at Jody.

▪ She stared hard at the black curly hairs on the neck of the man she'd married nine years before.

▪ As he put on his coat, he stared hard at Nancy, frowning a little.

swallow

▪ Closing her eyes, she swallowed hard, shuddering violently.

▪ I flushed, swallowed hard, struggled to keep from crying, struggled not to be overwhelmed by my fear of falling.

▪ He swallowed hard once or twice.

▪ Occasionally he would grimace and swallow hard, his lips going tight.

▪ She swallowed hard, then stretched out her hand and took it.

▪ Cantor momentarily closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

▪ Unbearably affected, she swallowed hard.

▪ She swallowed hard and pulled faces.

think

▪ I was thinking hard about why Prince pleasured me.

▪ Too worried to eat, I sat there thinking hard about my situation.

▪ Of course I didn't go and see Father Courtney without thinking hard about our relationship.

▪ I sat still, sipping slowly and thinking hard.

▪ I could see they had thought hard about this.

▪ Now the Walker Cup match is over, certain players should think hard before chasing a mirage.

▪ I know it's harrowing for you, but think hard.

▪ She stared at the letter again, thinking hard, despairing.

try

▪ Starting in 1967, we tried hard to whip up interest in the robots among potential customers, but with little success.

▪ At halftime, Oregon is up by twelve points, and Jody is trying hard not to let her emotions show.

▪ The Bishop tried hard to express his grateful thanks.

▪ She tried hard to look composed, but it was more difficult than she could have imagined.

▪ He tried hard not to admire or approve of the heroine, tried to imagine that life was not like that really.

▪ Mr Forsyth said that the tenants' association had tried hard to improve the quality of life for all concerned.

▪ They took great care and were concentrating on a small area, trying hard not to tread on the bones.

▪ Churt tried hard to come back and Paul Jones in the Haslemere goal had to make one particularly fine diving save.

win

▪ Chocolate is a multimillion pound industry, and each hard won market segment is jealously guarded by the giant global manufacturers.

▪ It was a time when the nation sought unity and the democracy so hard won in the Revolution.

▪ These achievements were hard won and preserving them will be a struggle.

work

▪ He remains convinced that it is imperative to work hard on his swing.

▪ The men worked hard in the stockyards, nearby factories, breweries, and construction sites.

▪ Work hard, stay poor; that is the message of money.

▪ He encountered two State Department officials working hard in Athens.

▪ Both Maid Marian and Holy War are very clean engines and little smoke can be seen even when working hard.

▪ Instead, they must work hard throughout the period of change until they have integrated new behaviors into daily routines.

▪ The visual memory is being worked hard here; the child has to carry strings of words, related by meaning.

▪ I worked hard for my education.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

(hard/hot/close) on sb's heels

(hard/hot/close) on the heels of sth

▪ Critique followed hot on the heels of this pioneering work.

▪ On the heels of this came Mr J. to tell us that young Mrs P. had had her thighbone crushed.

▪ Then it seemed that the consummation would follow soon on the heels of its inauguration.

▪ With another couple of laps he might have finished close on the heels of the two Dunlops.

a darn sight better/harder etc

a difficult/hard/good etc one

▪ But what is temperament, and how do we define what is a good one?

▪ I knew there was no sense in trying to do a better one.

▪ Maybe it was a crackpot theory, but it was a good one.

▪ Nevertheless, it was always clear that Schmidt's third term in office would prove a difficult one.

▪ Payno was gleeful, for his idea was a good one.

▪ The belief that hierarchical organizational structure makes for good business is a difficult one to give up.

▪ The Berlin Philharmonic as it exists today may be a happier orchestra, but it is in no way a better one.

▪ Then I became a lead project manager and, I have to say, I was a good one.

a hard/tough etc act to follow

▪ Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow.

▪ Colm Toibin's piece will be a hard act to follow but I suspect you are up to it.

▪ I know that she will be a tough act to follow.

▪ It was a hard act to follow, but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.

▪ John's is, of course, a hard act to follow.

▪ The new model has a tough act to follow.

▪ You've certainly set us a hard act to follow!

a hard/tough nut to crack

▪ Daytime television is a tough nut to crack. New shows have to be good enough to beat the old favorites.

▪ Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.

▪ Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.

▪ West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.

a hard/tough row to hoe

▪ Improving schools with little funding is a tough row to hoe.

▪ They have a hard row to hoe.

a hard/tough sell

as hard/tough as nails

▪ Willie O'Connor is as hard as nails and Liam Simpson takes no prisoners.

bad/difficult/hard etc enough

▪ Even a Patel, probably a Bhatt if I looked hard enough.

▪ It's bad enough trying to fly with unequal line lengths; having an asymmetric kite can be most frustrating!

▪ She identified the problem not as trying too hard to live up to a domestic ideal but as not trying hard enough.

▪ Since the cold war ended in 1988, they have worked hard enough to produce some kind of an economic miracle.

▪ That was going to be difficult enough anyway.

▪ The ties with the past difficult enough to sever already.

▪ This would be bad enough if California prisons were full of nothing but Charles Mansons.

bad/hard/tough luck

▪ Can't have that, can we, not on top of all your other hard luck.

▪ He felt that this little piece of bad luck might affect his whole day.

▪ I kept looking into the mirror and hating my bad luck, but there they were.

▪ There were lots of near misses: some great saves from both keepers, and sheer bad luck.

▪ Unfortunately, the gents had bad luck.

▪ You go up there with the wrong attitude and come out with worse luck than you had before.

be (hard) pushed to do sth

be (stuck) between a rock and a hard place

be a hard act to follow

▪ Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow.

▪ Colm Toibin's piece will be a hard act to follow but I suspect you are up to it.

▪ It was a hard act to follow, but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.

▪ Judith will be a hard act to follow.

be a hard/stern/tough taskmaster

▪ If self-employment is any guide, the dejobbed worker is likely to be a stern taskmaster.

▪ She was a hard taskmaster but a considerably fairer one than la Belle Ethel.

▪ True to his word, he schooled her in horsemanship and was a hard taskmaster.

better/harder/worse etc still

▪ And 245 specialty stock funds that focus on particular industries did better still, averaging a 6. 5 percent gain.

▪ But perhaps the early evening was better still?

▪ He didn't talk because he was afraid of losing the pole or, worse still, falling in.

▪ I started to hunt for a cheap restaurant or, better still, a snack shop.

▪ I thought that it would soon pass, and it did - for you to work harder still.

▪ Or better still, make a real talent show instead.

▪ Or better still, there was the village school practically next door!

▪ With hindsight, it would have better still to lock in a few more gains.

cold (hard) cash

▪ After a year, the igloo-shaped stadium has cost the citizens $ 20 million in very cold cash.

▪ Luckily, the chatter of cold hard cash later persuaded the state to sell the name to the highest bidder.

▪ No cold cash in the Nugent icebox, however, so I moved on.

▪ The other driving force is cold cash and order books.