hard-fisted

American  

[hahrd-fis-tid] / ˈhɑrdˈfɪs tɪd /

Or hardfisted

adjective

1. stingy; miserly; closefisted.

2. tough-minded; ruthless.

   hard-fisted revolutionists.

3. having hard or strong hands, as a laborer.

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Other Word Forms

• hard-fistedness noun
• hardfistedness noun

Etymology

Origin of hard-fisted

First recorded in 1650–60

Example Sentences

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

Normally, he would have seemed much as Sheldon, Senior, had described him—a hard-fisted man, a close bargainer who had won his way to his great wealth by the sheer force of a strong personality.

From The Vagrant Duke by Gibbs, George