What is the meaning of hard?

adjective

• Not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure.
  • usage: "a difficult task"; "nesting places on the cliffs are difficult of access"; "difficult times"; "why is it so hard for you to keep a secret"
  • synonyms: difficult
• Dispassionate.
  • usage: "took a hard look"; "a hard bargainer";
• Resisting weight or pressure.
• Very strong or vigorous.
  • usage: "strong winds"; "a hard left to the chin"; "a knockout punch"; "a severe blow"
  • synonyms: knockout, severe
• Characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort.
  • usage: "worked their arduous way up the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard labor"; "heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many laborious hours on the project"; "set a punishing pace"
  • synonyms: arduous, backbreaking, grueling, gruelling, heavy, laborious, operose, punishing, toilsome
• Produced without vibration of the vocal cords.
  • usage: "unvoiced consonants such as `p' and `k' and `s'"
  • synonyms: unvoiced, voiceless, surd
• Of light. ( transmitted directly from a pointed light source)
  • synonyms: concentrated
• Of speech sounds. (; produced with the back of the tongue raised toward or touching the velum)
  • usage: "Russian distinguished between hard consonants and palatalized or soft consonants"
• Given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors.
  • usage: "a hard drinker"
  • synonyms: intemperate, heavy
• Being distilled rather than fermented; having a high alcoholic content.
  • usage: "hard liquor"
  • synonyms: strong
• Unfortunate or hard to bear.
  • usage: "had hard luck"; "a tough break"
  • synonyms: tough
• Dried out.
  • usage: "hard dry rolls left over from the day before"

adverb

• With effort or force or vigor.
  • usage: "the team played hard"; "worked hard all day"; "pressed hard on the lever"; "hit the ball hard"; "slammed the door hard"
• With firmness.
  • usage: "held hard to the railing"
  • synonyms: firmly
• Earnestly or intently.
  • usage: "thought hard about it"; "stared hard at the accused"
• Causing great damage or hardship.
  • usage: "industries hit hard by the depression"; "she was severely affected by the bank's failure"
  • synonyms: severely
• Slowly and with difficulty.
  • usage: "prejudices die hard"
• Indulging excessively.
  • usage: "he drank heavily"
  • synonyms: heavily, intemperately
• Into a solid condition.
  • usage: "concrete that sets hard within a few hours"
• Very near or close in space or time.
  • usage: "it stands hard by the railroad tracks"; "they were hard on his heels"; "a strike followed hard upon the plant's opening"
• With pain or distress or bitterness.
  • usage: "he took the rejection very hard"
• To the full extent possible; all the way.
  • usage: "hard alee"; "the ship went hard astern"; "swung the wheel hard left"