Jump to:

• 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

---

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

---

hard pressed Idioms  

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

---

Etymology

Origin of hard-pressed

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

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

“If you do that today, you’re hard-pressed to find a great book that’s 500 to 600 pages long.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2026

"When you look at the biggest tournaments, you'd be hard-pressed to find another that's bigger than this one, especially for myself."

From BBC • Apr. 11, 2026

I’m hard-pressed to think of any movie I’d watch four times in a month if I didn’t genuinely admire it on some level.

From Salon • Apr. 5, 2026

When a foraging band was hard-pressed by a stronger rival, it could usually move on.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari