Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entries.

(US) a thug, a rough, tough man.

1896

S. Crane in Phila. Press 20 Dec. in Stallman (1966) 182: Dat dar Kent, he kep’ de place at Green Gate Cou’t [...] an’ he was a hard baby – ’deed, he was.

(UK black) a villain, a thug, a ‘tough guy’.

2008

A. Wheatle Dirty South 99: ‘Acts like a hardback man on road. You get me?’ ‘Courtney ain’t no hardback [...] At school this maaga little African brother broke him up.’.

see separate entries.

a thug; also attrib.

1851		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 28 June n.p.: The Rialto has long been celebrated as the resort of many of the ‘hard boys’ of Boston.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 9: Very powerful men who had generally been old villains and hard boys themselves.
1985		(con. 1968) D.A. Dye Citadel (1989) 117: Stop playing your fucking hard-boy games with me.
1989		A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 12: They got tired of sending round the hard boys.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 164: I could tell he was a hard boy.
2004		E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 3: Not if they’re hard boys on assignment to play stickball with my skull.
2008		G. Pelecanos Way Home (2009) 221: He did a little time with the hard boys out at Pine Ridge.

see separate entries.

(Irish) a tough person.

c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 74: No jars, of course, bar a few bottles of stout in the pantry for the hard chaws.
1948		P. Kavanagh Tarry Flynn (1965) 210: He watched the crowds re-enter for the dance and listened carefully to hear if any of the ‘hard chaws’ of the place would try to make a bargain at the door.
1956		B. Behan Quare Fellow (1960) Act II: He was a young hard chaw like you in all the pride of his strength and impudence.
1966		Eve. Press 21 Nov. n.p.: The gardaí had been issued with new white uniforms. It was a hot day, so he pulled up beside the first man [...] and said ‘Give us two choc ices, please.’ He belongs to the group of Dublin characters called ‘hard chaws’ [BS].
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 133: We flashed the letter to a fair cross section of hardchaws an’ so far they’re all for it.
1982		E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 23: Some hardchaw would roar out across the street, ‘Hey, you, come back with the dress suit’.
1991		(con. 1930s) K.C. Kearns Dublin Street Life and Lore 183: If he was a hardjaw we’d get back at him.
1993		S. Heaney Midnight Verdict 32: You hardened chaw, I’ve waited long, now I’ll curry you raw! You’ve had your warnings, you cold-rifed blirt.
2001		C. McPherson Port Authority 13: There was another fight brewing in the front garden between the local hardchaws and a load of crusties.

see tough cookie under tough adj.

(orig. US prison) a masculine, ‘butch’ lesbian.

1965		Ward & Kassebaum Women’s Prison 136: The hard daddy is the label given to those who play the butch role.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 103: hard daddy (women’s prison sl) the lesbian ‘husband’ who sets up housekeeping with another woman.

(US) a ‘tough guy’.

1983		P. Dexter God’s Pocket 32: They’d pick a hard dick who wouldn’t know the difference if they stole a load of live chickens to keep an eye on the job.
1994		G. Pelecanos Shoedog 9: ‘The old man, he’s a hard dick, he comes by every coupla years for this money he says Grimes owes him’.

see tough egg under tough adj.

narcotics.

1961

L. Block Diet of Treacle (2008) 129: He was selling hard goods now [...] junk was serious business.

see separate entry.

(US) a brutal, tyrannical person.

1818		M.L. Weems Drunkard’s Looking Glass (1929) 77: Hurra, for me! a hard horse I am gentlemen, a proper hard horse, depend! may-be I an’ta Roarer!
1834		Sun (N.Y.) 14 Apr. 2/2: The prisoner was what some people would call a ‘hard colt.’ [DA].
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues III 268: A brutal mate or officer ... hard-horse.
1929		F.C. Bowen Sea Sl. 64: Hard Horse, A. A tyrannical officer.

see hard chaw

(N.Z. prison) a hard man, a ‘tough guy’.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 84/2: hard jube n. one who is tough, staunch, resilient, a ‘hard man’.

1. a tough, aggressive individual.

1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 311: I had to fight to get [back] my place in the gang. I became a bit of a hard knock and proud of it.
2006		D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 3: Black [i.e. clothes] means you fancy yourself as a hard-knock.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

2008

A. Wheatle Dirty South 44: What do you know about a hard knock life? It’s always been easy for you.

see separate entries.

(US) a rough, aggressive individual.

1876		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer 228: I’m a kind of a hard lot,—least everybody says so.
1884		‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn xi 88: She told [...] all about pop and what a hard lot he was [DA].
1901		B. Pain De Omnibus 95: I once knowed a chap whart were a pretty ’ard lot.

a tough, aggressive, brutal pimp.

1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 35: A pimp who uses a great deal of charm and little violence or fear is called a sweet Mack or sugar pimp. One who uses brutality and threats is a gorilla pimp or hard Mack.
1977		J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 87: The other type [of pimp] may be a gorilla pimp or a hard Mack.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 hard mack Definition: a cruel pimp Example: The Fourth Ward’s a bad place full of hard macks.

see separate entry.

(US black) a discussion.

1940

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 15 Feb. 13: Latch onto this hard mess [...] and you’ll dig what I’m laying down.

(W.I.) a tough fighter.

1941, 1960

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

see separate entry.

(US) a thug, a tough person.

1990

S. Morgan Homeboy 124: Joe parried [...] praying the hardrocker wouldn’t call his bluff.

(Irish) a tough, devil-may-care individual.

1939		‘Flann O’Brien’ At Swim-Two-Birds 109: That pome [...] It’ll live as long as there’s a hard root of an Irishman left by the Almighty on this planet.
1954		J. Plunkett Bell Aug. n.p.: Maisie, who belonged to the establishment, giggled. ‘You’re a terrible hard root,’ she said admiringly [BS].
1979		H. Leonard A Life (1981) Act II: You won’t act the hard root when your time comes.
1981		(con. 1920s) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 220: a hardroot a devil-may-care.

see separate entry.

(W.I.) a stubborn man.

1958

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

1. (US) a ruthless, uncompromising, tough person.

1877		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (4th edn) 703: A ‘hard ticket,’ a man whom other people had better let alone; an unscrupulous man to deal with.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues VII 120/1: A hard ticket, [...] an unscrupulous man; a ‘hard nut to crack’.
1966		Eve. Press 21 Nov. n.p.: A hard ticket [...] can take fivepence from a nun with the comment ‘Five dee is dead right – there y’are – God bless you, me oul’ flower.’ [BS].
1994		(con. 1930s) K.C. Kearns Dublin Tenement Life 186: And there was a woman, a hard ticket, a stuffy-nosed old thing – and we were such a poor gang –and she’d a young one going to private school.
1996		A. Close Official and Doubtful 63: He was always a hard ticket, you wouldnae kick him if he was six months deid.

2. (Irish) a humorist, an eccentric.

1966

Eve. Press 21 Nov. n.p.: A hard ticket is a conductor on the 79 to Ballyfermot, or any of the poorer runs where you can still use your sense of humour [...] A hard ticket says ‘Hurry up now, girls,’ to the mothers of fifteen children [BS].

(US black/drugs) crack cocaine.

[1988		US Congress Crack Cocaine Crisis 26: In 1985 a new way to prepare and market freebase cocaine appeared [...] This involved preparing freebase with sodium bicarbonate [which] produced a hard, white material, which is now known as ‘crack’ or ‘rock’].
1992		J.A. Inciardi War on Drugs 113: Crack is known by many pseudonyms. Most commonly, it might be cracks, hard white, white, or flavor .
1996		Jay-Z ‘Coming of Age’ 🎵 We out here trying to make hard white into cold green.
2008		G-Unit ‘You So Tough’ 🎵 You know I got that hard white, you know I got that tan n brow.
2009		M.F. Olive Crack 15: As with any illegal drug, crack has many street names [...] hard white, white, caps, caviar, crills, barneys, yeyo, poprocks, foo-foo.
2011		J. Cole ‘Breakdown’ 🎵 You made a milli off of servin hard white.
2012		F. Poole Crackheads Only 34: Look nigger; if you want the hard white you’ll make it happen.

1. approaching middle-age or older.

1958		V.S. Naipaul Suffrage of Elvira 123: Is the sort of language to hear from a old, hardback, resign man like you?
1970		F. Collymore Notes for Gloss. of Barbadian Dial. 59: Fancy an old hard back man like you saying a thing like that!
1973		E. Braithwaite ‘Tizzic’ in Arrivants 260: Hick Tizzic was one o’ de few hard back man they got livin’ hey you could trust (except wid yuh daughter).
1986		O. Senior ‘Real Old Time T’ing’ Summer Lightning 57: Miss Myrtella is a hard-back woman by now.

2. used of one who ought to know better.

1. (orig. US) stern, unrelenting.

1813		J. Ray Proverbs 188: She is as crusty as that is hard baked. Somerset. One that is surly, and loth to do any thing.
1847		J.S. Robb Streaks of Squatter Life 73: It’s my opinion, these squirtish kind a fellars ain’t perticuler hard-baked.
1880		Wilmington Morn. Star (NC) 18 Sept. 3/2: ‘I’m a hard-baked old sinner,’ ‘No! Whoop! That’s my case to a dot’.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 15 Mar. 6/1: [A] weary, hardbaked smile flitted over the unshaved countenance of our stump smoker.
1922		Pittsburgh Dly Post (PA) 12 Feb. 24/2: The farmer isn’t the hard-baked fellow he’s cracked up to be.
1942		Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL) 17 Apr. 4/3: A hard-baked old egg who wouldn’t stick for any monkey business.

2. constipated.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 94: Hard-baked: a dog when constipated is hard-baked.

see separate entries.

(US) a physically trim, sexually attractive person.

[1925		D. Hammett ‘Ruffian’s Wife’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 57: How conceivably could Guy — her hard bodied, hard-nerved Guy — [...] be harmed by a perfumed, asthmatic fat man?].
[1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 113: Big, hard body, out-of-towner with a twang. Sort of good looking].
1984		Hardbodies [film title].
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 253: The main cove where the crowds gathered [...] to scope out the hardbodies, most of whom were male.
1994		J. Wambaugh Finnegan’s Week 160: Most of the hardbodies wore combinations of Day-glo shorts, tank tops [...] and cutoffs.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 156: A hardbody like Teenie’s was better off naked.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 177: Lots of hard bodies out there [i.e. California], young guys looking to pick up good-looking divorcees.

see separate entry.

(Aus. bad luck) .

c.1943

S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 10: hard cack: Hard luck.

bad luck; usu. as hard cheese on..., hard cheese for...; the phr. may well imply minimal or non-existent sympathy.

1822		Leicester Chron. 31 Aug. 4/4: ‘We come to get the woman liberated, as we think a month’s gaol for few words is hard cheese’.
1837		G. Blink Tiger at Large in Webster Acting National Drama 13: Jem. His wages was too low. Don’t you think a pound a month, and find one’s self is hard cheese?
1844		Leeds Times 28 Sept. 8/3: The ‘prime minister,’ we have heard. too, is in disgrace. It is hard cheese this after he has done his best.
1854		Northampton Mercury 27 May 4/6: It was hard cheese to pay money for nothing.
1857		Elgin Courier 25 Sept. 3/5: It was ‘hard cheese’ at her time of life to be turned out of her living.
1867		Sporting Times 2 Feb. 6/3: [N]ot content with low thoughts you must have suitable slangy words. Your bloody fines, your hard cheeses, and likewise hard crusts, et hoc genus omne, are natural to you as to stink is to a badger.
1878		Sheffield Indep. 3 June 4/4: It’s rather hard cheese for Andrew too.
1881		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 19 Sept. 2/2: Mr Frost denied the charge, but would pay the money, remarking that it was ‘hard cheese’.
1890		Derbyshire Times 7 June 6/5: He also remarked that it was ‘hard cheese when a man couldn’t work’.
1894		Leamington Spa Courier 6 Dec. 2/5: Manley [...] had the misfortune to kick it over the cross-bar, amid loud expressions of ‘hard cheddar’.
1908		Magnet 22 Feb. 10: It was certainly ‘hard cheese’.
1910		Magnet 27 Aug. 9: It’s pretty hard cheese if a chap can’t have an extra snooze on his birthday.
1913		Dundee Courier 31 Mar. 6/1: They held the lead for eighty-six minutes, losing it just as Referee Robertson was preparing to blow his whistle [...] t was hard cheddar.
1914		G.A. England ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in DN IV:ii 74: hard fodder, n. bad luck.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 12 June 4/5: Hard cheese that he can’t caatch a Mannum tabby.
1915		The Post (Lanarks.) 10 Jan. 4/4: York City players are not getting their wages [...] Hard cheese.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 329: We’ve got going, but too late. And damned hard cheese, I call it.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 274: Aye? Man, that was hard cheese.
1941		A.P. Herbert Let Us Be Glum 54: [poem title] Hard Cheese.
1958		Willans & Searle Complete Molesworth (1985) 49: Which was hard cheddar really.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 35: ‘Hard cheese,’ I said to him.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 185: His dreams had all been shattered which is double hard cheese.
1973		M. Harris Angry Eye 110: That’s hard bloody cheese for the English-reading scholars.
1989		S. Armitage ‘Not the Bermuda Triangle’ in Zoom 75: And as for the estate it is simply hard cheese.
1999		Guardian Travel 12 June 2: Hard cheese for him. But I was well pleased.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 191: There is hard luck, bad luck expressed in forms such as hard cheddar and hard cheese, both of which convey a lack of sympathy, if not a distinct heartlessness.
2003		R. Ohmann Politics of Knowledge xv: Hard cheese for poor countries: still another US-imposed regime in Afghanistan.
2020		A. Parks Bobby March Will Live Forever 135: That all you’re going to say? Hard cheese, son. Barlinnie here you come?ê‘.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 610: [T]he sooner they’re [i.e. ‘the Red Sea Pedestrians’] all packed off to Palestine the better... hard cheese on Mustapha Mustapha of course.

see separate entries.

(US black) extremely good, fashionable.

1946

Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 216: second cat: Hey Mezzie, lay some of that hard-cuttin’ mess on me.

1. a character, an eccentric, one who never gives up despite any circumstances.

1894		Western Mail (Perth) 1 Dec. 52/2: From the point of view of the feeder they might justly be set down [...] as eminently hard doers, and at their best [...] they can but look ungainly, slab sided, thriftless animais.
1900		Cootamundra Herald (NSW) 4 July 2/6: [of a boat] Oh ! lor! her nose was smashed up and bent in, she did look a hard doer.
1900		Jerilderie Herald (NSW) 14 Dec. 5/3: Paget’s Horse [...] are 500 strong and the corps consists of ‘dukes’ sons, lords’ sons, &c.’ By Jove, they are ‘hard doers.’ Every one of them has the drawl of the ‘Johnny’ [...] They provide great amusement for the Bushmen.
1903		Amer. Florist 19 317: Crane is a ‘hard doer’ around Cleveland. Casper Aul’s chrysanthemums are extra fine, especially Polly Rose.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Apr. 14/1: The hard doer explaining that the names of the Apostles have been written on the slips of paper.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Nov. 44/3: [Y]ou seemed to be talking a bit loud. And you were all wrong. So I said I would look after you. But you’re a hard doer; and in looking after you I got bushed myself.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 23: Me father had some swell people in England, but he was a bit of a hard doer, and he got into some trouble.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 165: A bloke about thirty-five, looks like a hard doer and wears a tweed hat all squashed on his head.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxv 6/2: hard case: A bit of a no-hoper. Also hard doer.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 140: Shorty had always been a bit of a hard doer, and I didn’t know whether to believe him.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 55/1: hard doer incorrigible person, wag.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] They were hard doers the Mud Crabs. But they were his hard doers. They were his team.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

2. an amusing fellow, a ‘good sport’.

1988

McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 55/1: hard doer incorrigible person, wag;.

stale, sour drink.

c.1698

B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.

in boxing, a fist.

1858

A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 189: Ned sent his ‘hard dumplings’ against Jack’s ‘organ-pipes’.

(Aus.) cash, money.

1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 57: [I]t was most unusual for Big Oscar to have that amount of hard-earned in any kind of kick, let alone this legitimate one [ibid.] 249: [His] good ole Aunty Vi from west Cronulla [...] literally only ever chanced her pension hard-earned on the Cup.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 131: Poor men bet their hard-earned on races about which they knew little.

see separate entries.

(Aus.) of wind, very strong.

1985		J. Morrison Share House Blues 59: ‘River up, wind hard enough to blow a dog off a chain’.
2009		N. Gemmell Bk of Rapture [ebook] Seagulls poured down to daily scraps and the wind could blow a dog off a chain.
2012		G. Conrad Surviving Being Born [ebook] The Santa Ana winds would bring dry hot dust in from the desert and could blow a dog off a chain.
2015		M. Riddell Same Dog, Different Shite [ebook] It’s slightly raining and the wind's strong enough to blow a dog off a chain.

see separate entries.

(US black/W.I.) a black person’s naturally kinky hair.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

1. (US) a bowler hat.

1919		Printer’s Ink 106 137/1: The economist, let us suppose, wears a ‘derby,’ otherwise a ‘hard hat’ .
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 51/1: Hard hat, a derby.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 181: The Australian equivalents of what the Englishman calls a bowler and the American a derby. Here are our contributions: boxer, [...] hard hat, [...] and peadodger.

2. (US) a construction worker.

1942		E.B. Davis ‘Paul Bunyan Talk’ AS XVII:4 222: hard hat. A safety engineer, because of these officials’ attempts to get loggers to wear helmets while working, as a protection against falling branches.
1956		H.M. Newell [title] Hardhats.
1970		Sat. Rev. (US) 10 Oct. 20: When construction workers, some of them with crowbars, wade into a group of students, laying them about indiscriminately, not everyone joins in denouncing the hardhats.
1971		B. Moyers Listening to America 203: An old shipbuilder or a plumber or a lumberjack – you’d call them a hardhat back in New York – will want to give one of those kids a swat on the chops.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 58: The hard hats started mouthing off and one thing led to another.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 106: Gary goes salesman on the workers building the new wing at Bon Secours, unloading two more irons on the hard hats.
2003		N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 232: The hardhats showed up [...] seemingly all at once.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

see under hustle n.

(US black) an FBI agent.

1944

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 13 May 6B: Just about then a brace of Hard Johns cruise in.

see hard-hitter n.

see separate entry.

(US Und.) counterfeit money.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

see separate entries.

cheek, impudence.

1919		Dundee Courier 25 Oct. 3/4: The expression used in the army to describe an unreasonable request for anything is ‘hard-neck’.
1925		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 20 Apr. 4/3: Men of the clerical order are to-day protesting against bands playing in public parks on Sunday. They have a very hard neck to do anything of the kind.
1933		Dundee Courier 17 Feb. 5/7: I am just going to suggest that have a ‘hard neck’ to ask any poor shareholder to support such a report.
1946		Post (Lanarks.) 21 Apr. 4/2: Hard Neck! [...] You might send down two men to dig the garden. I want to get my vegetables in.
1956		B. Behan Quare Fellow (1960) Act I: Corkmen and Northerners ... they’ve such bloody hard necks.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 357: You had the hard neck to pass the time of day with him.
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 70: Mr. Hayes had said he’d help me any way he could, but even with my hard neck I couldn’t ask him.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Hard Neck (n): cheek.

see separate entries.

see separate entry.

(US) butter, margarine, lard.

1923		(con. WWI) G. McKnight Eng. Words 56: Hard oil for ‘butter’ [HDAS].
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 95: Hard Oil.–Butter.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

(W.I.) a bad debtor, through either his inability or his unwillingness to pay.

1952

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

a fur cap typically worn by a London tough.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

in poor economic circumstances, in difficulties.

1832		Leeds Intelligencer 11 Oct. 2/6: Our neighbours of the Mercury were hard-pushed on Saturday. They swagger, threaten, and drivel [...] but come out very lamely.
1834		A. Greene Perils of Pearl Street 123: As I said, at the end of six months we began to be hard-pushed.
1847		Hereford Times 6 Mar. 8/1: [It] must be hard pushed when it resorts to such unmanly tactics.
1855		Cork Examiner 27 June 2/5: Russians are hard pushed for both these materials of warfare.
1864		Dundee, Perth & Cupar Advertiser 5 Feb. 4/4: If he is hard pushed, he will find it more to his advantage gracefully to withdraw.
1879		Dundee Courier 20 Mar. 4/6: Another [Boot] Maker, hard Pushed, has sent in a Fine Lot, 20 to 30 per cent. under Wholesale.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 1/3: This is precisely the sort of inquiry which would suggest itself to a boat-load of castaways in mid-ocean, with food only sufficient to keep half the people alive till land is reached. Then kill the other half – and eat them too, if hard-pushed.
1893		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 4 Apr. 4/8: Anti-Unionists are hard pushed when they seize upon the individual views of a private member.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 14: Your Honor must be hard pushed if you have to tote such an Extensive Kit with which to defend it.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Sept. 10/3: The Victorian railways are so hard pushed for rolling-stock [...] that Tait is now dragging out of the dust-heap some of the old, long-discarded Hobson’s Bay dog-boxes.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 161: It does strike me that they ought to lay off us Grangers that are hard pushed.
1937		Dundee Courier 16 Oct. 5/2: She knew her husband was ‘hard pushed’.
1947		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 29 Dec. 4/3: Burns suppers next month are to be hard pushed for haggis.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

see hard stuff n. (3)

see separate entries.

(US black) a straightened or ‘processed’ hairdo that is covered in hair-oil or cream.

1944

D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 102: Up stomps a stud with a hard skull fry.

see sledding n.

see under spiel n.

see short strokes n.

1. inadequate rations [naval use hard tack, ship’s biscuits, coarse food; SE hard, difficult/intoxicating].

1863		Winchester Army Bull. (TN) 12 July 4/1: ‘Sow-belly’ should he breakfast on, rusty, poor and black, / Accompanied by coffee weak, and miserable hard tack.
1865		J.W. Haley Rebel Yell and The Yankee Hurrah (1985) 274: His ears were saluted with a yell of ‘hardtack!’.
1887		E. Custer Tenting on the Plains (rev. edn 1895) 289: He didn’t like hard-tack no better than they did.
1893		‘Oliver Optic’ Fighting Joe (1911) 65: The young staff officer [...] filled his haversack with ‘hard-tack,’ and leaped into the saddle.
1900		Dundee Courier 11 Sept. 4/7: Provisions are scarce at Pekin. Everyone is living on ‘bully beef’ and ‘hard tack’.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘A Word List From Montana’ in DN IV:iii 244: hardtack, n. Biscuit (not applying to ship’s biscuit) ‘These hot days I get tired of hardtack’.
1927		C. Sandburg ‘The Lane County Bachelor’ in Amer. Songbag 122: You may chew your hard-tack till you’re toothless and gray.
1937		Dundee Courier 8 Feb. 5: Their supply of fresh provisions is long since exhausted and tghey are down to bully beef and hard tack.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 106: You’ve got plenty of grub. It’s only hard tack, but it may be all we’ll get for a day or two.

2. (Aus.) hard work.

1912

Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Sept. 51/2: It’s hard tack, but we’re getting into the way of mixing it with other things.

3. (Irish) spirits, as opposed to beer.

1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 163: Not getting much chance to drink ‘the hard tack’, as he called it, he wasn’t just slinging it down the hatch.
1985		T. Murphy Conversations on a Homecoming (1986) 42: Give me a drop of the hard tack too, as well as the pint.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Hard Tack (n): spirits (usually whiskey), neat.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 237: I had already decided to los the hard tack. I only drank beer.

1. (US) a mule, thus hard-tailed adj.

1917		A.G. Empey Over the Top ‘Tommy’s Dict. of the Trenches’ 294: ‘Hard tails.’ Mules.
1928		(con. 1918) L. Nason Top Kick 112: Them hard-tails o’ yours been fed yet?
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 207: Hard tails – Mules, usually old ones. So named because they show little response to the skinner’s whip.
1934		Z.N. Hurston Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 40: Git up heah, you hard-tailed bastard!
c.1943		‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Hardtail: Army mule.
1960		A. Lomax Folk Songs of North America 429: That [...] critter, known to Americans variously as the barnyard yodeller, the hard-tail, the jug-head, the long-eared chum and the Missouri humming bird.

2. (US) an experienced man.

1933

‘W. March’ Company K 182: Frank Halligan....Why, I hadn’t thought of that old hard tail for years! [HDAS].

see hard shot n.

see separate entries.

(US) a cheap, poor quality fabric, which resembles heavy wool but is not much better than cotton shoddy and used for the cheapest of clothes; thus hard times party, someone who wears worn-out or seedy clothes.

1844		in AS XXII 203/1: At Conference, he appeared in character, with ‘hard-times’ coat and striped blanket, looking quite as much like a missionary as any of us [DA].
1891		S.M. Welch Recollections of Buffalo 1830–40 354: A kind of goods were manufactured [...] for men’s clothing, adapted for and called ‘Hard Times,’ a mixed cloth, of black and white or grey and black, spun and woven of coarse, loose thread, presenting the appearance of heavy wool mixtures, which was really nothing but a sort of cotton shoddy, and sold for twenty-five cents per yard.
1916		J. Lait ‘Omaha Slim’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 107: After the harvesting would be the gatherings and the barn dances and the hard times parties. [...] Why not walk in on them in the hard times party, enter thus on a laugh.
1923		Outing (N.Y.) Apr. 6/3: Well, Sparks, you might just as well hang up the rest of that shirt somewhere; it’s draped over your shoulders like a costume for a hard-times social [DA].
1948		Aurora Beacon News (IL) 7 Nov. 21/6: This yearly dance has the aura of hard times parties as the guests come attired in blue jeans, slacks and sweaters [DA].

(US black) a tough, aggressive woman.

1946

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 26 Jan. 21: The two other little hard-tops! They looked like something that prowls around the zoo when the lights are out.

see separate entries.

(US) a strong alcoholic drink.

1934

B. Traven Death Ship 49: I am drinking my hard washer, and ask, for another, straight.

1. (gambling) the making of an even point in a dice game by throwing a pair rather than two separate numbers; thus in pool, the making of a pot through a difficult rather than easy shot; also in fig. use.

1931		D. Runyon ‘Blood Pressure’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 81: ‘Charley,’ he says, ‘do you make it the hard way?’ [...] I never hear myself whether Charley makes his ten with a six and a four, or with two fives – which is the hard way.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 249: ‘There it is boys, the hard way!’ someone called out, with the gloating laughter of the triumphant.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 15: Spider was hot, he made four the hard way.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 70: But I always gave him a hard way to shovel and said, ‘Give me the works with a square back.’.
1986		H. Selby Jr Song of the Silent Snow (1988) 11: He was taking all kinds of bets and winning: gagging his point, the hard way, over and under 7.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 20: Her screwball wandering eye that looked like the five ball off the eight, the hard way.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 114: There were other ways you could bet. Like Hard Ways, where you had to throw the same two numbered dice.

2. (UK prison) a sentence served without remission.

1989

J. Morton Lowspeak.

see separate entry.

(US campus) to commit oneself wholeheartedly.

2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 Fall 3: GO HARD IN THE PAINT — do with intense drive and motivation: ‘Tom has been studying all week for this midterm’ Y: ‘Yes, he’s going hard in the paint’.
2017		S.B. Taitt Get Your Head in the Game [ebook] You have to go hard in the paint. Play afraid but play hard.

(US black) excellent, wonderful, as good as one could desire.

a.1962		‘The Signifying Monkey II’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 28: He was hard as lard and stashed ’way back.
1988		(con. 1930s) C.E. Lincoln The Avenue, Clayton City (1996) 8: You got to be hard as lard and twice as greasy!

see under scran n.