Word.ws English Dictionary

have a hard time

have a hard time verb: to experience a difficulty in attaining one's goals or objectives.

Verb

have a hard time (third-person singular simple present has a hard time, present participle having a hard time, simple past and past participle had a hard time)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To experience a difficulty in attaining one's goals or objectives.

Forms of have a hard time

third-person singular presenthas a hard time
present participlehaving a hard time
past participlehad a hard time
pasthad a hard time

Questions about have a hard time

What does have a hard time mean?
Have a hard time means to experience a difficulty in attaining one's goals or objectives.
What part of speech is have a hard time?
Have a hard time is a verb.
What is the past tense of have a hard time?
The past tense of have a hard time is had a hard time.

Words near have a hard time in the dictionary

  1. have a good time
  2. have a good time of it
  3. have a good weekend
  4. have a hand in
  5. have a handle on
  6. have a hard time
  7. have a hard time of it
  8. have a head for
  9. have a head on one's shoulders
  10. have a heart
  11. have a jag on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have a hard time (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “have a hard time.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/have_a_hard_time. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.