hardheaded

1 having or showing a practical cleverness or judgment a hardheaded politician who never hesitated to set aside principle in favor of expediency Synonyms astute, canny, clear-eyed, clear-sighted, hard-boiled, shrewd, heady, knowing, savvy, sharp, sharp-witted, smartRelated Words artful, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, devious, dodgy [chiefly British], foxy, guileful, pawky [chiefly British], slick, sly, subtle, tricky, wily; discerning, insightful, perceptive, percipient, perspicacious, sagacious, sage, sapient, wise; experienced, veteran; discriminating, discriminative; agile, alert, brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, intelligent, keen, nimble, quick, quick-witted, sharp-eyed, sharp-sighted; apt, ingenious, resourceful; calculating, schemingNear Antonyms artless, guileless, ingenuous, innocent, naive (or naïve); exploitable, gullible (also gullable); unperceptive, unwise; dense, dull, obtuse; airheaded, birdbrained, brain-dead, brainless, dim-witted, dopey (also dopy), dumb, empty-headed, feebleminded, gormless [chiefly British], half-witted, knuckleheaded, lamebrain (or lamebrained), lunkheaded, simple, slow, slow-witted, softheaded, stupid, thickheaded, thick-witted, unintelligent, weak-minded; foolish, idiotic (also idiotical), imbecile (or imbecilic), moronic, silly, thoughtless, witless; ignorant, uninformedAntonyms unknowing

2 sticking to an opinion, purpose, or course of action in spite of reason, arguments, or persuasion Granny remained hardheaded about keeping her house and not moving into a nursing home Synonyms adamant, adamantine, bullheaded, dogged, hard, hardened, obstinate, hard-nosed, headstrong, immovable, implacable, inconvincible, inflexible, intransigent, mulish, obdurate, opinionated, ossified, pat, pertinacious, perverse, pigheaded, self-opinionated, self-willed, stiff-necked, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, willful (or wilful)Related Words anal-retentive, obsessive; wayward, wrongheaded; determined, hell-bent, inexorable, persistent, relentless, resolved, set, single-minded, steadfast, stouthearted, tenacious, unflinching; firm, hard-line, hard-shell (or hard-shelled), iron, severe, stern, strict; hidebound, narrow-minded, rigid; bloody-minded [chiefly British], cantankerous; contrary, cussed; contumacious, disobedient, froward, insubordinate, intractable, recalcitrant, refractory, uncooperative, ungovernable, unmanageable, unruly; defiant, insurgent, mutinous; indomitable, invincible, unconquerable; confirmed, inveterate, unregenerate; demanding, exactingNear Antonyms docile, obedient, placable, submissive, tractable; accepting, persuadable, receptive, responsive, willing; governable, manageable, reasonable, temperate; slavish, subservientAntonyms acquiescent, agreeable, amenable, compliant, complying, flexible, pliable, pliant, relenting, yielding

3 willing to see things as they really are and deal with them sensibly a hardheaded minister who understands the difficulties teenagers face today Synonyms down-to-earth, earthy, realistic, matter-of-fact, practical, pragmatic (also pragmatical)Related Words idealless, philistine, utilitarian; commonsensical, grounded, levelheaded, logical, no-nonsense, rational, reasonable, sane, sensible, sober, sobersided, sound; bottom-line, hard, hard-boiled, hard-edged, tough-minded, unromantic, unsentimental; cynical, disillusioned, misanthropic, pessimistic; distrustful, mistrustful, skeptical, suspiciousNear Antonyms fanciful, fantastic (also fantastical), imaginative; romantic, sentimental; cheerful, optimistic, rose-colored; trustful, trusting, unsuspicious; half-baked, illogical, insane, irrational, unreasonable; theoretical (also theoretic)Antonyms blue-sky, idealistic, impractical, unrealistic, utopian, visionary