'ard

Adjective

hard (comparative harder or more hard, superlative hardest or most hard)

1. Solid and firm.
   • Luckily she wasn’t there any more, no one was, when he returned from the Caribbean carnival damp-hatted and soaked through after being caught unprepared by a squall of hard, hot rain.2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5
   1. Resistant to pressure; difficult to break, cut, or penetrate.
      • This bread is so stale and hard, I can barely cut it.
   2. Strong.
   3. Containing alcohol.
      • hard cider, hard lemonade, hard seltzer, hard soda
   4. Very acidic or tannic.
      • While most 1974s remain hard, tannic, hollow wines lacking ripeness, flesh, and character, a number of the Graves estates did produce surprisingly spicy, interesting wines.2002, Robert M. Parker (Jr.), Pierre-Antoine Rovani, Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide (page 175)
   5. High in dissolved chemical salts, especially those of calcium.

See all 43 meanings of hard