hard-ass
Americannoun
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.
“People with things to hide opened to him, unfailingly, until they detected a relentless hard-ass reporter at work.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 1, 2022
If Giuliani had been “the epitome of the hard-ass, it’s-all-about-me-call-the-press-’cause-I’m-gonna-slap-the-cuffs-on-a-Wall-Street-crook lawyer-cum-politician,” journalist Ross Johnson wrote, then Mayorkas was his antithesis — a 5-foot-7, smooth-voiced empath who emphasized prosecutorial restraint.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 18, 2021
Rolling Stone's Peter Travers compared the film to "Dangerous Minds" and said it "gives the inspiring teacher/at-risk youth drama a hard-ass and heartfelt French redo."
From Salon ● Apr. 12, 2020
She told me later, “That’s when I realized you’re not a hard-ass — you’re an old softie.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2019
“Being a hard-ass just doesn’t go with the system here,” said Big D. “You’re not going to change everything.”
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
