Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a white native of rural Tennessee or Kentucky.

1845		Bangor Mercury n.d. n.p.: A smart sprinkling of the inhabitants of Illinois are from New England, a heap from Kentucky, and the balance are John Bulls, Paddies, Pukes, Wolverines [...] Hard Heads.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 26: A goddam hardhead [...] a worthless Kentuckian, but who will be a corporal in six weeks, but who will still be a worthless goddam hardhead.

2. (US) alcohol, usu. whiskey.

1876

St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: They nominate ‘bottled electricity,’ ‘lemonade with a stick in it,’ ‘jig-water,’ ‘budge,’ ‘bilge-water,’ ‘bug-juice,’ ‘rat-poison,’ ‘fusel-oil,’ ‘red-eye,’ ‘liquid ointment,’ ‘cut nails,’ ‘hard head,’ ‘benzine,’ ‘nitro-glycerine,’ ‘oil,’ ‘tea,’ ‘eye-water,’ ‘chain- lightning.’ [...] they all want the same article, alcohol, more or less diluted.

3. (US black) a rebellious, non-conformist black person, a hot-tempered person.

1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 66: Miss, you know uh heap uh dese hard heads wants to woof at you but dey skeered.
1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1001: Whenever he was challenged by a hard-head or a frail eel on the right of his title he would eye-ball the idol-breaker with a slice of ice.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 21: If you were a hardhead, as Cabiness admitted he was, you could make a little trouble go a long way.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 197: Gui, Gui. Why’re you such a hardhead?
1987		(con. 1950s) G. Moloi My Life 112: I also remember the Krugersdorp hardheads like Bular, Lefty, Fish, Election and so on.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 41: Why you wanna bruise your hand on some hardhead when you can be somewhere fuckin’? [Ibid.] 126: Managing their money, supervising hardheads, and moving along.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 182: There are a few hardheads around who answer to their Christian names.

4. (Aus.) a regular gambler, e.g. on horses or boxing.

1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 24 Oct. 1/3: All the hard headswere waiting for Cranborne, having carefully noted the hold Want had of him at Rosehill.
1933		C. Drew ‘Gorilla Grogan’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 40/4: Well, next day the paper gives it out about the fight [...] Gorilla was favorite. Most of the hardheads walloped their sugar on him.

5. (Aus.) a villain, a criminal.

1933		W. Scott ‘Take ’Im Alive’ Und. Mag. May 🌐 Greetings, Hardhead. Going to shell out like a beer baron on a souse, eh?
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 531: [...] since ca. 1950.
1993		G. Disher Deathdeal [ebook] [C]ops or hardheads with a grudge were looking for him.
2008		‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 100: Being an ex-Black Spade, Bam always had a gang of hardheads around him to make sure his parties didn’t go AWOL.

6. (US) an extremely zealous person.

1974

(con. 1945) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 292: Discipline in such things was relaxed except for the occasional hardhead who wanted to write down a man’s name for any small forgetfulness.

7. (US) a fool.

1959		A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 99: ‘Hardhead, dummkopf, estupido,’ Jake muttered to himself.
1983		I.L. Allen Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 50: Stereotypes of Low Intelligence: hard-head [also thick-head, bonehead].
2011		T. Pluck ‘Glutton for Punishment’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 36: ‘Sixteen pounds, Terry. You know what else weighs sixteen pounds? A sledgehammer. Don’t be a hardhead’.

8. (US) an intransigent, uncompromising person.

1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 13: I asked you in a nice way, but you hardheads got to get smacked down.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 12: They were invariably hard-heads, those publishers: chronic cynics with a talent for poking holes in the smoothest promotional pitch.
1991		B. McCarthy Vice Cop 55: He needed a hardhead like Bill McCarthy, a man who was simply too proud, too stubborn, too sanctimoniously bent on doing the right thing.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [of prison officers] Silverwater was slowly filling with hardheads from the ’70s.
2012		J. Díaz This Is How You Lose Her 188: Like a hardhead you keep trying to run but the pain sharpens.