Happy-go-lucky, careless, indifferent as to the favours or reverses of fortune.
Haramzadeh, a very general Indian term of contempt, signifying base-born.—Anglo-Indian.
Hard lines, hardship, difficulty. Soldiers’ term for hard duty on the lines in front of the enemy. Lines was formerly synonymous with Lot, see Ps. xvi. 6.—Bible version—“The LINES are fallen unto me in pleasant places;” Prayer-Book do.—“The LOT is fallen unto me in a fair ground.”
Hard mouthed un, any one difficult to deal with, a sharp bargainer, an obstinate person. Derivation obvious.
Hard tack, ship biscuits. This is a term used by sailors to distinguish their ordinary sea-bread from that obtained on shore, which is called soft TACK, or soft tommy. Hard tack is also a phrase used by the London lower classes to signify coarse or insufficient food.
Hard-up, a cigar-end finder, who collects the refuse pieces of smoked cigars from the gutter, and having dried them, smokes them, or sells them as tobacco to the very poor. See [TOPPER].
Hard-up, in distress, poverty-stricken.—Sea.
Hardy, a stone.—North.
Harebrained, reckless, unthinking.