- with great effort; with difficulty
- to work hard
- You must try harder.
- She tried her hardest not to show how disappointed she was.
- He was still breathing hard after his run.
- You shouldn't train too hard—be careful about injuries.
- He is fighting hard to keep his job.
- She trained hard twice a day.
- Our victory was hard won (= won with great difficulty).
Which Word? hard / hardlyhard / hardly- The adverb from the adjective hard is hard:
- I have to work hard today.
- She has thought very hard about her future plans.
- It was raining hard outside.
- Hardly is an adverb meaning ‘almost not’:
- I hardly ever go to concerts.
- I can hardly wait for my birthday.
- I’ve been working hardly today.
- She has thought very hardly about her future plans.
- It was raining hardly outside.
Extra ExamplesTopics Difficulty and failurea1- He had studied hard to become an engineer.
- I trained as hard as I could.
- The industry has been lobbying hard for cuts in electricity pricing.
- They prayed hard for rain.
Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
- with great force
- Don't hit it so hard!
- I pressed the accelerator hard and the car sped off.
- (figurative) Small businesses have been hit hard/hard hit by the recession.
- carefully and completely
- to think hard
- We thought long and hard before deciding to move house.
- They need to look hard at the facts of this case.
- heavily; a lot or for a long time
- It was raining hard when we set off.
- at a sharp angle to the left/right
- Turn hard right at the next junction.
with effort
with force
carefully
a lot
left/right
Word OriginOld English hard, heard, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hard and German hart.
Idioms
See hard in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee hard in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishbe/feel hard done by
- (informal) to be or feel unfairly treated
- She has every right to feel hard done by—her parents have given her nothing.
be hard pressed/pushed to do something | be hard put (to it) to do something
- to find it very difficult to do something
- He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.
be hard up for something
- to have too few or too little of something
- We're hard up for ideas.
hard on something
- (literary) very soon after
- His death followed hard on hers.
hard/hot on somebody’s/something’s heels
- very close behind somebody/something; very soon after something
- He turned and fled with Peter hot on his heels.
- They reached the border with the police hot on their heels.
- Further successes came hot on the heels of her first best-selling novel.
- News of rising unemployment followed hard on the heels of falling export figures.
old habits, traditions, etc. die hard
- used to say that things change very slowly
take something hard
- to be very upset by something
- He took his wife's death very hard.
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hard