hard cheese

American  

noun

Slang.

1. an unpleasant, difficult, or adverse situation.

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

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hard cheese British  

1. slang bad luck

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Etymology

Origin of hard cheese

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

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

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

Scrape out the “spaghetti,” finish with delicate fresh herbs and pair with a favorite pasta sauce, hard cheese, eggplant or grilled protein.

From Salon • Oct. 8, 2023

His job was to take the shells off four dozen hard-boiled eggs, cut hard cheese into inch cubes and stick a toothpick in each cube, and slice big pickles lengthwise.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

Related Words

• adversity
• hard time
• hardship
• misfortune
• setback
• tragedy