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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

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

She may be hard pressed to avoid one.

From Barron's • Mar. 18, 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

To be clear, if CEOs were paying attention to the body of evidence on this topic that’s available and growing, they’d be hard pressed to ignore one recurring conclusion.

From Salon • Feb. 27, 2025

‘Yet we are hard pressed, and the Sword of Elendil would be a help beyond our hope — if such a thing could indeed return out of the shadows of the past.’

From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien