the hard way

noun

: in a way that involves difficult or painful experiences

He found out the hard way that crime doesn't pay.

She insisted on doing things the hard way.

Examples of the hard way in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Alas, poor Bryan is about to learn the hard way that change — as the saying goes — is as hard to outrun as an ever-growing zombie rat king with 37 different limbs and a weirdly personal vendetta. — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 16 Sep. 2026

Companies and health systems that treat ambient documentation as a pure software problem (deploy it, minimize edits and measure only time saved) are more likely to discover the limits the hard way. — Pat Williams, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2026

In the case of the Manchester derby, Carrick found out the hard way that spreading his players evenly wasn’t the best solution against a low block. — Jon MacKenzie, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026

As the music industry found out the hard way, threats or litigation will never stop a new technology for long. — Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 14 Sep. 2026

Rhymes for the hard way

• aaa
• alleyway
• alumnae
• anime
• anyway
• arete
• attache
• axillae
• baa
• beaujolais
• bouvier
• breakaway