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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

See Examples For:

hard-pressed hard pressed

Moreover, Europe would be hard-pressed to substitute for the southbound trade once heralded by Nafta, with an economy growing at half the pace of America’s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

One was that Warsh would be hard-pressed to call financial conditions restrictive.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

A person familiar with the process but not authorized to speak about it publicly said Hackman Capital will be hard-pressed to pay its debt in light of challenges facing the industry.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026

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

From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2026

While other tributes that year were hard-pressed to get a handful of grain or some matches for a gift, Finnick never wanted for anything, not food or medicine or weapons.

From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins

Goals, assists and consistent performances throughout the season, I think you would been hard pressed to find somebody who has delivered as much as Harry, I really do.

From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2026

The proliferation of scientific journals has created an almost insatiable need, and professors on the treadmill of grants, research and publishing are hard pressed to fit in such volunteering.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026

Throw in the affordability crisis — from food to energy bills — and you have an economic outlook that Nostradamus would be hard pressed to predict.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone here who had anticipated that Han Kang would be awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature, the world’s highest literary honor.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2024

Though his interaction with the Lilliputians wasn’t the strongest section, you would be hard pressed to find equally clever interplay of parody and originality.

From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken