hard-bitten
Americanadjective
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tough; stubborn.
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conditioned by battle or struggle.
a hard-bitten army.
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grim or severe in judgment or attitude.
a hard-bitten old teacher.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of hard-bitten
First recorded in 1775–85
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The cabbie, a hard-bitten postcommunist cynic, asks her if she’s visiting the archives “for work or fun.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025
The British screen and stage star won an Emmy in 1975 for her portrayal of hard-bitten but ultimately kind-hearted maid Rose Buck in the TV drama about class in Edwardian England.
From BBC • Apr. 13, 2025
Dip into the dad-canon iconography of Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective series, of which more than 40 hard-bitten installments have been released since the early 1970s?
From New York Times • Jan. 13, 2024
A hard-bitten New York intellectual of the old stripe, Gilman spoke with a smoker’s rasp, enjoyed a drink and comported himself like a rakish pirate in a denim jacket.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 14, 2023
Poor darling Briony, the softest little thing, doing her all to entertain her hard-bitten wiry cousins with the play she had written from her heart.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
