Hardrock
noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Rock containing ore from which minerals are extracted. countable, uncountable
"The federal system for "hardrocks," pursuant to the Mining Law of 1872, allows the discovery, location, and development of these minerals without payment to the federal government."
- 2 Solid, nonporous rock. countable, uncountable
"The Western U.S. sample was separated into the recording site categories of hardrock ( i.e., crystalline rock outcrop) , intermediate ( i.e., sedimentary rock or thin alluvium) and alluvium ( i.e., thick alluvium), and average residuals were computed for each of the three subsets."
- 3 A type of concrete that contains relatively small amounts of aggregate relative to the amount of cement. countable, uncountable
"The tension test specimens embedded to 45 mm (1 - 3/4 inch) in hardrock concrete generally failed when the tensile limit of the anchor itself was reached."
- 4 An unregenerate criminal; a bully boy. countable, slang, uncountable
"Rules and regulations and strict security measures used to hold hardrocks in line work against men trying to learn responsibility for themselves."
Example
More examples"The federal system for "hardrocks," pursuant to the Mining Law of 1872, allows the discovery, location, and development of these minerals without payment to the federal government."
Etymology
From hard + rock.
More for "hardrock"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.