Definition of HARD PUT

Examples of hard put in a Sentence

she was hard put to explain her department's excessive expenditures

Recent Examples on the Web

People crowded into slums, shantytowns and favelas from where they were hard put to reach jobs. — The Economist, "Shining light on Latin America’s homicide epidemic," 5 Apr. 2018 Old-fashioned undertakers are hard put to find their place in such antics. — The Economist, "Why undertakers are worried," 12 Apr. 2018 Having enacted so many new gun laws last year, state legislators were hard put to find new restrictions to pass this year. — Dan Walters, San Francisco Chronicle, "California’s new gun law is a puzzler," 19 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hard put.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.