HARD PUT Synonyms: 19 Similar and Opposite Words

hard put

adjective

Definition of hard put

as in put to it

faced with difficulty or uncertainty about what to say, think, or do she was hard put to explain her department's excessive expenditures

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Example Sentences

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Recent Examples of hard put Given their miserable track record, the Fed’s bureaucracy will be hard put to defend their models. — Steve Forbes, Forbes.com, 19 May 2026 But you’d be hard put to find two men the heavens are less likely to cow. — The Editors, Curbed, 15 Dec. 2025 Many Americans, while understanding that Washington was essential to the success of the revolution in his role as commanding general, would be hard put to explain why he is so highly ranked as president. — Sara Georgini, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Aug. 2024 From Brazil to Germany, companies are hard put to crew up, such is the demand by series and movies. — John Hopewell, Variety, 10 May 2023 This item, which has more in common with a tabletop decoration than a functioning reticule, would be hard put to accommodate a hairbrush; a cellphone would dwarf it. — Lynn Yaeger, Town & Country, 22 Jan. 2023 Japan itself, with a stagnant economy and the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, will be hard put to sustain the necessary military buildup. — Walter Russell Mead, WSJ, 28 Nov. 2022

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hard put

Adjective

The perplexed inspector has no idea what – or where – that is.

— Monitor reviewers, Christian Science Monitor, 19 Oct. 2026
Bettany is by turns hilariously perplexed, in the universal manner of parents engaging with teens everywhere, and achingly tender, in the more unusual way of a robot letting himself be overwhelmed by feeling for the first time.

— Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 12 Oct. 2026

Definition of perplexed

Adjective

The Tulare County elections office in the Central Valley was suddenly getting peppered with questions from baffled voters.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2026
Thanks to the coffered and baffled wood ceilings, noise levels are buffered and kept to a pleasant rumble.

— Sean Timberlake, Sacbee.com, 25 Sep. 2026

Definition of baffled

Adjective

One unanticipated effect of my public activism efforts is that people now feel embarrassed about using their smartphones in front of me.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2026
The Bears nearly turned a blowout into a disaster, and the Giants somehow went from getting embarrassed to creating a quarterback controversy.

— Dan Zaksheske OutKick, FOXNews.com, 19 Oct. 2026