HARD TIME

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hard time mean? 

• HARD TIME (noun)
  The noun HARD TIME has 2 senses:

1. a difficulty that can be overcome with effort

2. a term served in a maximum security prison

  Familiarity information: HARD TIME used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HARD TIME (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A difficulty that can be overcome with effort

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

hard time; rough sledding

Context example:

analysts predicted rough sledding for handset makers

Hypernyms ("hard time" is a kind of...):

difficulty (a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A term served in a maximum security prison

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("hard time" is a kind of...):

prison term; sentence; time (the period of time a prisoner is imprisoned)

 Context examples 

"Tutors also have rather a hard time of it there, as I know to my sorrow. There's no place like America for us workers, Miss Margaret."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Uranus, the planet of surprise that may have given you a hard time at the end of January, will signal both the new moon and Sun, as well as Mars.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

A question about whether an individual has or had a hard time telling other people about their infection.

(Hard to Tell Other People About Infection, NCI Thesaurus)

While the crack was growing, scientists had a hard time predicting when the nascent iceberg would break away.

(Massive Iceberg Breaks Off from Antarctica, NASA)

Yet it was a hard time for sensitive, high-spirited Jo, who meant so well and had apparently done so ill.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

You may have had a hard time at the end of October when a difficult full moon in Scorpio lit your eleventh house of friendship.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I had a hard time, Jo, and shed a good many bitter tears over my failures, for in spite of my efforts I never seemed to get on.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

This may be holiday season and a hard time to address home-related matters, but if you do, you may get a bargain on a lease or purchase of an apartment or house.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Ambitious girls have a hard time, Laurie, and often have to see youth, health, and precious opportunities go by, just for want of a little help at the right minute.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Those years may have marked a hard time for you, relating to something connected with your home, such as rent, a mortgage, a landlord, repairs, or in terms of caring for an elderly relative.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)