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Synonyms

hard cheese

American  

noun

Slang.
  1. an unpleasant, difficult, or adverse situation.

    It's hard cheese for the unskilled worker these days.


hard cheese British  
  1. slang bad luck

"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

Etymology

Origin of hard cheese

First recorded in 1875–80

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.

See Examples For:

Exports of the flavourful hard cheese produced around Parma in northern Italy rose by 2.7 percent to nearly 75,000 tonnes last year, the industry's trade association said.

From Barron's ● Mar. 26, 2026

Google has posted it on YouTube - which it owns - and it no longer contains any reference to what percentage of the world consumes the hard cheese.

From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2025

One cup of milk, a 3-ounce serving of Greek yogurt or 1 ounce of hard cheese contains 7-8 grams of protein.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 22, 2024

With dense hard foods like hard cheese or carrots, where you can clearly see the mold colony, he says it’s safe to cut away the moldy part plus an extra inch or so.

From National Geographic ● Nov. 10, 2023

“Hard bread, hard cheese, oat cakes, salt cod, salt beef, salt mutton, and a skin of sweet wine to rinse all that salt out of my mouth. I will not die of hunger.”

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

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