hard handed

Adjective

hardhanded (comparative more hardhanded, superlative most hardhanded)

1. Forceful, excessive, draconian, or abusive.
   • 'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe...1785, William Cowper, “The Garden”, in The Task, a Poem, in Six Books. By William Cowper … To which are Added, by the Same Author, An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools...

   Synonyms:

   domineering, harsh, heavy-handed, strict, tyrannical

2. Working-class; having hands hardened from labor.
   • To deliver out of that Egyptian bondage to Wretchedness, and Ignorance, and Sin, the hardhanded millions, of whom this hardhanded, earnest witness, and writer, is here representative.1864, Thomas Carlyle, Critical and miscellaneous essays, page 374

   Synonyms:

   blue-collar, hardworking, working-class, workworn