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• hard-pressed
  hard-pressed

  adjective

  heavily burdened or oppressed, as by overwork or financial difficulties; harried; put-upon.
• hard pressed
  hard pressed

  Overburdened, put upon, as in With all these bills to pay we find ourselves hard pressed. [c. 1800]

hard-pressed

American  

[hahrd-prest] / ˈhɑrdˈprɛst /

Or hardpressed

adjective

1. heavily burdened or oppressed, as by overwork or financial difficulties; harried; put-upon.

   Synonyms:

   beleaguered

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hard-pressed British  

adjective

1. in difficulties

   the swimmer was hard-pressed

2. subject to severe competition

3. subject to severe attack

4. closely pursued

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hard pressed Idioms  

1. Overburdened, put upon, as in With all these bills to pay we find ourselves hard pressed. [c. 1800]

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Etymology

Origin of hard-pressed

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hard-pressed hard pressed

He said hard-pressed suppliers were cutting corners on quality.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

And I’ll say it again: You would be hard-pressed to find a clearer constitutional guarantee than this.

From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2026

It’s an incredible level of control that investors would be hard-pressed to find in publicly traded companies.

From Barron's ● May 20, 2026

“If you do that today, you’re hard-pressed to find a great book that’s 500 to 600 pages long.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026

Irwin’s stable was probably the largest in America at the time, and may have been the largest ever, but most of the horses would have been hard-pressed to outrun Irwin himself.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

But one would be hard pressed to argue that any comedy ever surpassed “Trouble in Paradise” for invention and refinement.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026

Ten years on, you would be hard pressed to find a football fan who does not recognise him.

From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026

Throw in the affordability crisis — from food to energy bills — and you have an economic outlook that Nostradamus would be hard pressed to predict.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025

He’d be hard pressed to find anyone capable of cogent thought who agrees with him.

From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2025

Resavek was a long way off, and even Cob, the most worldly of them, would be hard pressed to find it on a map.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss