as in poor
lacking money or material possessions
despite being undeniably hard up, they had too much pride to accept charity
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hard up
How to Do It Right Negotiate hard up front.
—
Lien De Pau, Forbes.com, 17 Sep. 2025
Kai Jones does not have two-way eligibility, and that matters a lot for a team hard up against the luxury tax.
—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2025
This letter descended to Charles Austen and thence to his granddaughters, who, hard up, sold it in the 1920s, part of a larger cache of relics and manuscripts.
—Literary Hub, 4 Aug. 2025
After decades of bringing us the incredible shrinking transistor, chipmakers are now hard up against the limits of their printing technique: Trying to use today’s ultraviolet lasers to print the next generation of circuits would be like trying to trace a fine line with a preschooler’s crayon.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2011
See All Example Sentences for hard up
Lien De Pau, Forbes.com, 17 Sep. 2025
Kai Jones does not have two-way eligibility, and that matters a lot for a team hard up against the luxury tax.
—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2025
This letter descended to Charles Austen and thence to his granddaughters, who, hard up, sold it in the 1920s, part of a larger cache of relics and manuscripts.
—Literary Hub, 4 Aug. 2025
After decades of bringing us the incredible shrinking transistor, chipmakers are now hard up against the limits of their printing technique: Trying to use today’s ultraviolet lasers to print the next generation of circuits would be like trying to trace a fine line with a preschooler’s crayon.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2011
See All Example Sentences for hard up
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hard up
Adjective
-
Harper opened a small dance studio, on Forty-sixth Street; business was poor until Bradley was hired and revamped Delroy’s act.—
Brian Seibert,
New Yorker,
13 May 2026
-
Still vehicle electronics can be damaged from reverse polarity, poor or wrong connection points or voltage spikes from improper equipment.—
Hartford Courant,
Hartford Courant,
12 May 2026
Adjective
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The play’s focus is resolutely on the impoverished rural family of women who fall under this ambitious bluesman’s influence in the rural Georgia of the 1930s, writes Chris Jones.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
13 May 2026
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This model is much less appealing to the impoverished governments, which sometimes struggle to pay their own troops.—
Brady Knox,
The Washington Examiner,
10 May 2026
Adjective
-
The two share an inquisitive and child-like energy, turning heavy conversations about growing up broke, the solitude of incarceration, and desperate cries for attention, into something remarkably light.—
Malina Saval,
Los Angeles Times,
13 May 2026
-
On Monday, Pat Riley essentially said what’s broke should be fixed.—
Ira Winderman,
Sun Sentinel,
30 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hard up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hard%20up. Accessed 17 May. 2026.
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