First recorded in 1965–70
First recorded in 1920–25
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Even so, they believe S3E could become a viable alternative to evaporation ponds and hard rock mining, which currently dominate global lithium production despite their environmental drawbacks.
From Science Daily ● May 23, 2026
Tanbreez is among the largest rare earth hard rock deposits in the world, at 45 million tons.
From Barron's ● Apr. 17, 2026
Pop culture seemed ready to welcome back a breed of hitmaker thought lost to time — the sleeve-tatted, throat-shredding hard rock star.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026
Jack also recently announced alongside Sharon on their podcast that Ozzy's heavy metal and hard rock festival Ozzfest would be returning in 2027.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2026
‘We’ve done it! We’ve escaped from the Emyn Muil! And now what next, I wonder? Maybe we shall soon be sighing for good hard rock under foot again.’
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
The project is marked by a return to the group’s heavy-metal and hard-rock roots.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Like many of Brazil’s rare-earth deposits, Viridis’s reserves are found in clay, which executives say is cheaper and easier to process than the hard-rock deposits common in Australia and elsewhere.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
The official cause of death for Ace Frehley, the guitarist who was a founding member of hard-rock band Kiss, has been released, confirming details his family shared in October.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2025
The drummer and lyricist for beloved Canadian hard-rock trio Rush was widely considered one of rock’s most skilled instrumentalists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2025
Mixed in with all the college students and farm boys and out- of-work loggers, there were grizzled hard-rock miners from all over the West.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
