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

She may be hard pressed to avoid one.

From Barron's • Mar. 18, 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

To be clear, if CEOs were paying attention to the body of evidence on this topic that’s available and growing, they’d be hard pressed to ignore one recurring conclusion.

From Salon • Feb. 27, 2025

Resavek was a long way off, and even Cob, the most worldly of them, would be hard pressed to find it on a map.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss