hard time
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- A period of significant difficulty or struggle: Refers to an experience involving hardship, challenge, or adversity.
- A prison sentence served under strict, maximum-security conditions: Specifically denotes a punitive period of incarceration.
Usage and Examples
- Noun (Period of Difficulty):
- She is having a hard time adjusting to her new job.
- The company fell on hard times during the recession.
- Noun (Prison Sentence):
- The convict is doing hard time for his crimes.
- He was sentenced to ten years of hard time.
Advanced Usage and Nuances
- "Give someone a hard time": To criticize, tease, or make things difficult for someone.
- The older kids always give him a hard time about his glasses.
- "Have a hard time" + [verb-ing]: To experience difficulty in doing something.
- I have a hard time understanding the local accent.
Variants and Related Words
- Hard-times: (noun, often hyphenated or plural) A period of economic depression or personal financial struggle.
- The family remembered the hard-times of the 1930s.
- Hard-time (as a modifier): Used attributively to describe something related to serving a strict prison sentence.
- He was a hard-time prisoner.
Synonyms
- Difficulty: The state or condition of being hard to do or deal with.
- Hardship: Severe suffering or privation.
- Struggle: A forceful effort to get free or to achieve something.
- Rough sledding: (Idiomatic) A difficult or challenging period or process.
Related Phrases
- Doing time: (Phrasal verb) Serving a prison sentence.
- He's doing time in a federal penitentiary.
- Hard luck: Bad fortune.
- He's had nothing but hard luck this year.
Related Idioms
- Hard time of it: An experience involving great difficulty.
- The explorers had a hard time of it crossing the desert.
- Times are hard: An expression stating that current circumstances are difficult, especially financially.
- With the factory closed, times are hard in this town.
Noun
- a term served in a maximum security prison
- a difficulty that can be overcome with effort
- we had a hard time getting here
- analysts predicted rough sledding for handset makers