hard up

Idioms  

1. In need, poor, as in Unemployment is rising and many families are hard up, or With widespread emigration, Russia is finding itself hard up for scientists and other professional people. [Colloquial; early 1800s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hard up

They are now pushing hard up against their cost-cap limit.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2024

And while we can't know for sure, it's likely that #2 Smith Court, hard up against the African Meeting House, was the final home Rebecca shared with Wyatt.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 2, 2023

Crawford lined one hard up the middle that just eluded the grasp of Neto and bring home Pollock and make it 5-2.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2023

The de Celises were hard up when they sold their property in the 1870s to a man named Charles Maclay.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2022

More than that, though, they were hard up against the fact that a few minutes of extreme exertion were about to tell them whether five and a half months of training had been worthwhile.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown