hard-fought
adjective
1
: requiring a lot of effort or hard work
He won a hard-fought campaign for reelection.
2
: achieved or acquired through a lot of effort or hard work
a hard-fought victory/triumph
Examples of hard-fought in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Advertisement Advertisement The final vote was hard-fought, as GOP leaders and the President himself worked overnight to persuade skeptical holdouts to drop their opposition to the bill over its cuts to Medicaid and increase in budget deficits, which stalled the legislation for hours.
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Nik Popli, Time, 3 July 2025
In the final hours, leadership scrambled to lock down support amid growing frustration from both fiscal hawks and policy purists, underscoring just how fragile and hard-fought the party’s legislative victory truly was.
—Samantha-Jo Roth, The Washington Examiner, 3 July 2025
The road to that moment was long, hard-fought and paved by generations of LGBTQ+ activists, allies and couples who demanded visibility, dignity and equality.
—Dave Quinn, People.com, 26 June 2025
Fans should be treated to an incredibly entertaining and hard-fought series between two very talented teams.
—Evan Massey, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 May 2025
It’s been hard-fought for every inch of ice out of there.
—Michael Russo, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2025
With control of the court on the line, the formally nonpartisan election was always going to be expensive and hard-fought, but Mr. Musk’s investment beginning in mid-February supercharged the stakes, attention and cash flowing into the state.
—Reid J. Epstein, New York Times, 2 Apr. 2025
The other was the vigorous argument between abstraction and figuration as front runner of the avant-garde, then being hard-fought in the American art world.
—Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2025
Listen to this article The Knicks’ first game without Jalen Brunson went as expected: hard-fought until the end, where New York missed its captain and All-Star clutch performer.
—Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 8 Mar. 2025
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Nik Popli, Time, 3 July 2025
In the final hours, leadership scrambled to lock down support amid growing frustration from both fiscal hawks and policy purists, underscoring just how fragile and hard-fought the party’s legislative victory truly was.
—Samantha-Jo Roth, The Washington Examiner, 3 July 2025
The road to that moment was long, hard-fought and paved by generations of LGBTQ+ activists, allies and couples who demanded visibility, dignity and equality.
—Dave Quinn, People.com, 26 June 2025
Fans should be treated to an incredibly entertaining and hard-fought series between two very talented teams.
—Evan Massey, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 May 2025
It’s been hard-fought for every inch of ice out of there.
—Michael Russo, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2025
With control of the court on the line, the formally nonpartisan election was always going to be expensive and hard-fought, but Mr. Musk’s investment beginning in mid-February supercharged the stakes, attention and cash flowing into the state.
—Reid J. Epstein, New York Times, 2 Apr. 2025
The other was the vigorous argument between abstraction and figuration as front runner of the avant-garde, then being hard-fought in the American art world.
—Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2025
Listen to this article The Knicks’ first game without Jalen Brunson went as expected: hard-fought until the end, where New York missed its captain and All-Star clutch performer.
—Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 8 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Hard-fought.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hard-fought. Accessed 15 Jul. 2025.
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