Hard-pressed

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Barely able. Having difficulty doing something. idiomatic, usually

    "Although they are still available, I think we would be hard-pressed to find one on short notice."

  2. 2
    Experiencing financial difficulty or difficulty in surviving. idiomatic

    "The earthquake left the residents hard-pressed."

Adjective
  1. 1
    facing or experiencing financial trouble or difficulty wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
crowdeddistresseddouble quickdouble timehard pressedhard pushed

Example

More examples

""My feet aren't so dirty as yours!" "You'd be hard-pressed to call them clean, though!""

More for "hard-pressed"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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