hard-fisted
Americanadjective
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stingy; miserly; closefisted.
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tough-minded; ruthless.
hard-fisted revolutionists.
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having hard or strong hands, as a laborer.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hard-fisted
First recorded in 1650–60
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.
Franco died in 1975, and most of the country rejoiced at the end of 36 years of hard-fisted dictatorship, a protracted coming out party that culminated in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 10, 2017
A team without a superstar beat Kansas as a hard-fisted unit.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 27, 2016
The paper's business side "sometimes complained good-naturedly that it was hard to know if Dave was the hard-fisted business publisher or was the editor in him still too sympathetic to the editorial side," Coffey said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2015
Ambitious, hard-fisted men who had flocked to the Gulf Coast jostled against the established French colonial families in a bruising struggle for land and power.
From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 2011
All three itched sore to play off some trick on the old painter, who was a just man and a god-fearing, but hard-fisted withal and a cruel taskmaster.
From The Well of Saint Clare by Allinson, A. R. (Alfred Richard)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
