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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

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

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

It is but a momentary respite for the hard-pressed island.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

"This legal action has dragged on for months, cost hard-pressed local residents a fortune and we still have no clear outcome," Whitehouse said.

From BBC • Mar. 10, 2026

You would have been hard-pressed to find anyone in Wall who would have argued with him, though; she turned many heads and, in all probability, broke many hearts.

From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman