Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also hardie) an erection.

c.1864		‘A Roue’s Apology’ Rakish Rhymer (1917) 145: If I have said or done too much, / I humbly beg your pardon; / The magic of your thrilling touch / Has given me a hard-on. [Ibid.] Parody 146: Bless me, you’ve a hard-on—sparking Sunday night [...] Old Reuben’s head is bobbing high up to your vest.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1902		D. St John Memoirs of Madge Buford 91: ‘Bathe this hard-on in cold water, I want to keep it for [this] afternoon’.
1919		Transcript Dunn Inquiry in L.R. Murphy Perverts by Official Order (1989) 23: He was very much put out [...] because I could not get a hard on.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 505: (He bares his arm and plunges it elbowdeep in Bloom’s vulva.) There’s fine depth for you! What, boys? That give you a hardon?
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 315: He got a hardon and couldn’t sleep and was worried for fear the girls would notice.
1941		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 124: One morning Mahatma Gandhi / Had a hard-on, and it was a dandy.
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 141: Neal [...] was screwing the maid in the bedroom. Neal ran downstairs to answer the door with a hardon.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 95: The Blast [...] wakes the Spanish pimp with a hard-on.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 121: ‘He couldn’t get a hard-on,’ she said shortly.
1971		T. Lewis Plender [ebook] But the next time you got a hard on it was always straight to the toilet for a quick one off the wrist.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 207: She said she had a top scorer in the NBA there with her right then and we ought to see the hard-on she was looking at.
1981		S. Berkoff Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 8: Say your hard on’s taking a small holiday this year.
1985		J. Morrison Share House Blues 120: ‘Marcus said I’m an arrogant, lecherous young bastard, with a permanent hard-on’.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 74: Half these guys had hardons in various stages of tumescence.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] The comment about the hard-on is playing on me mind.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 21: [A] hard-on that Superman couldn’t have bent.
1998		Guardian G2 19 Nov. 6: He wanted to fuck her but he didn’t have a hard-on.
2003		P. Cornwell Blow Fly (2004) 46: You got a damn hard-on [...] a stiff dick!
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] I loved the way he held my face when he kissed me [...] and how it gave him an instant hard-on.
2009		P. Temple Truth 165: You now stick out like a hardie in the convent showers.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 107: You’ll give me a hard-on and then I’ll be late.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I got him to rub Hawaiian Tripoic on my back [...] I think he got a hard-on.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 75: He opens the door and she sees his raging hard-on.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 64: [H]er dainty bone-fingers climbing up his leg to see if they could charm a hard-on.
2021		A. Parks April Dead 33: ‘[C]oshes and batons out, fucking hard-ons in their trousers’.

2. passionate, lustful feelings.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
a.1968		‘The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 147: The whorehouse bells were ringing, / And the pimp stood in the door; / He’d a hard on all day long / To screw some dirty whore.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 95: We can’t stay in hidin’ just because the fuckin’ man’s got a hard on.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 33: He was probably just a nice old fart with a hard-on for a beautiful young cellist.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 503: War criminals’ graves really gave her a hard-on.

3. an obsession, usu. hostile, aggressive feelings towards.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1954		(con. 1920s–30s) J.O. Killens Youngblood (1956) 412: That cracker sure is got a hard-on for you.
1965		D. Pearce Cool Hand Luke (1967) 129: Boss Godfrey didn’t have such a hard-on for Luke anymore.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 27: He’s got to figure I got a hard-on for the Panthers.
1984		W. Diehl Hooligans (2003) 17: You got a hard-on for the Feds?
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 291: Some Deep South ofay with a hard-on for blacks.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] They’d both got giant hard ons [...] n and raced down to the real estate agency where they questioned the flustered woman behind the counter.
2000		F. Kellerman Stalker (2001) 376: Bederman has a hard-on for you, you know. And I don’t mean the sexual kind.
2006		D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 94: Why such a hard-on for Frankie Machine ? [...] Why did we even want him gone?
2006		D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 14: You want Bobby fucking Kennedy in the White House? Guy’s got a hard-on for us you could cut glass with.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘You want to get IAB up our ass?! [...] Give Sykes more of a hard-on for you than he already has?’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 266: I don’t want to see [...] the Hats get nailed for sinking that guy — despite Miller Leavy’s hard-on to slam them.

4. (US) a bad temper, irrespective of gender.

1977

(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 256: I’m sorry I thought his name was Chuckie Quinn, if that’s what’s giving you the hard-on.

5. (US) used as a term of address, usu. sarcastic and referring to someone’s high self-esteem.

1958		Kerouac letter 19 June in Charters II (1999) 135: I’m still with you, hardon!
1961		H. Ellison Rockabilly (1963) 95: I’ll tell you why, you little hardon.
1978		D. DeLillo Running Dog (1992) 205: Dipshit. You hard-on.

6. (US) a despicable individual, a tough, aggressive person.

1969		P. Roth Portnoy’s Complaint 119: You mean, miserable hard-on you.
1977		(con. 1969) M. Herr Dispatches 130: Oh come on, Day Tripper, don’t be a hard-on.
1991		(con. 1950s) in J. Breslin Damon Runyon (1992) 403: Don’t be a hard-on [...] I don’t want no hard-ons in my outfit.
1999		Guardian Weekend 25 Sept. 24: We [...] shrivelled a hard-on with simply a menacing look.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 223: You’re not just another one of those rudeboy hard-ons that you hang around with.
2008		C. Faust Money Shot [ebook] ‘One of those young hard-ons that caught your case’.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 66: That cop is a last of the Mohican hard-ons.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 97: ‘I wouldn’t be such a hard-on if you worked with me a little’.

7. in fig. use, positive feelings.

1967		K. Kolb Getting Straight 11: You think it’s God, but it’s just a hard-on.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 282: You can’t hide that hard-on you’ve got for the cameras.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 176: Walking point is the hardon. It means you’re the first out there, that there is nobody else to rely on.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 56: I didn’t have dollar one down, and I could feel myself getting a hard-on for this race.

8. (US) a difficult task.

2004

N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 109: The screws had a hard-on to find the phantom bomber.