Hard-nosed

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Guided by practical experience and observation rather than by theory.
  2. 2
    Hardheaded, stubborn. idiomatic
  3. 3
    Tough and relentlessly practical and thus not given to sentiment.
Adjective
  1. 1
    guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
adamantinebloody-mindedcallousdoggeddourhard

Example

More examples

"Tom is a hard-nosed, tough customer."

Etymology

hard + nosed; originally referred to hard-tipped bullets.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.