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• hard-pressed
  hard-pressed

  adjective

  heavily burdened or oppressed, as by overwork or financial difficulties; harried; put-upon.
• hard pressed
  hard pressed

  Overburdened, put upon, as in With all these bills to pay we find ourselves hard pressed. [c. 1800]

hard-pressed

American  

[hahrd-prest] / ˈhɑrdˈprɛst /

Or hardpressed

adjective

1. heavily burdened or oppressed, as by overwork or financial difficulties; harried; put-upon.

   Synonyms:

   beleaguered

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hard-pressed British  

adjective

1. in difficulties

   the swimmer was hard-pressed

2. subject to severe competition

3. subject to severe attack

4. closely pursued

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hard pressed Idioms  

1. Overburdened, put upon, as in With all these bills to pay we find ourselves hard pressed. [c. 1800]

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Etymology

Origin of hard-pressed

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

And I’ll say it again: You would be hard-pressed to find a clearer constitutional guarantee than this.

From Slate • Jun. 30, 2026

“In a blind tasting, unless they’re an expert, people would be hard-pressed to know that it is not a Scotch.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 16, 2026

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more irresistible character on television than Cirie Fields on the 50th edition of “Survivor,” or one more discussed than “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Taylor Frankie Paul.

From Los Angeles Times • May 26, 2026

It’s an incredible level of control that investors would be hard-pressed to find in publicly traded companies.

From Barron's • May 20, 2026

“But you say they were gods?” asked Mouzaive, the natural philosopher, who was hard-pressed to believe in the divine.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor