hard-ass
Americannoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“People with things to hide opened to him, unfailingly, until they detected a relentless hard-ass reporter at work.”
From Seattle Times • Sep. 1, 2022
“If he were a hard-ass to the Russians, it would have been difficult for him to succeed,” he said.
From Washington Post • Nov. 8, 2019
“He’s terribly flawed. He may seem like a hard-ass, but his weakness is his compassion for other human beings. I think people can really relate to him.”
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 17, 2019
Which is not to say you need to be a real hard-ass about anything; this is just to emotionally buttress you against feeling like a monster.
From Slate • Jan. 24, 2018
“Being a hard-ass just doesn’t go with the system here,” said Big D. “You’re not going to change everything.”
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
