hard-and-fast

[ hahrd-n-fast, -fahst ]
See synonyms for hard-and-fast on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. strongly binding; not to be set aside or violated: hard-and-fast rules.

Origin of hard-and-fast

1
First recorded in 1865–70

Other words for hard-and-fast

Other words from hard-and-fast

  • hard-and-fastness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hard-and-fast in a sentence

  • But he never takes it as a hard-and-fast principle which must at all costs be imposed upon the facts.

    Form and Function | E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell

British Dictionary definitions for hard and fast

hard and fast

adjective
  1. (hard-and-fast when prenominal) (esp of rules) invariable or strict

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with hard-and-fast

hard-and-fast

Defined, fixed, invariable, as in We have hard and fast rules for this procedure. This term originally was applied to a vessel that has come out of water, either by running aground or being put in dry dock, and is therefore unable to move. By the mid-1800s it was being used figuratively.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.