hard-nosed adj.
1. stubborn, tough, uncompromising.
![]() | Barker III i: If she comes to say goodbye, don’t be hardnosed. Treat her decent. | |
![]() | From Here to Eternity (1998) 328: Falling for a hard nosed whore at Mrs Kipfer’s. That was just about that punk’s goddam speed. | |
![]() | Beat Generation 25: Man, you’re hard nose! | |
![]() | Where the Boys Are 94: Men from the Big Ten are so hardnosed around anyone from the League. | |
![]() | Proud Highway (1997) 321: I finally wrote him a very hardnose letter at his home. | letter 16 Feb. in|
![]() | Carlito’s Way 13: My buddy was hard-nose. | |
![]() | Observer Mag. 14 May 53: Officer Spottke is known as a cop’s cop: tough, hard-nosed, good in a fight. | |
![]() | Bonfire of the Vanities 370: Or if they really want to get hard-nosed about it, they could work on a theory of assault with a dangerous weapon. | |
![]() | Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 151: From the hardest-nosed thugs to the most bombed-out junkies. | |
![]() | Indep. Rev. 25 Feb. 13: Hard-nosed business man Hereman Blume [...] is drawn to Max’s icy ‘can-do’ attitude. | |
![]() | Watergate 130: [T]he well-respected and hard-nosed Richard McLaren. |
2. common-sense, sensible, e.g. hard-nosed practicalities.
![]() | DSUE (8th edn) 531: [...] 1970s. | |
![]() | Indep. on Sun. Culture 22 Aug. 2: A working-class background [...] taught him a hard-nosed attitude to money. |