Hard-bitten, adj. (colloquial).—Resolute; game (q.v.); desperate.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, liii. My sooth, they’ll be hard-bitten terriers will worrie Dandie.
Hard-cheese, subs. (Royal Military Academy).—Hard lines; bad luck; specifically at billiards.
Hard-cole. See Hard and Cole.
Hard-doings, subs. (American).—1. Rough fare; and (2) hard work.
1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 37. Hard doins when it comes to that.
Hard-drinking, subs. (old: now recognized).—Drinking to excess.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hard-drinking, excessive Soking, or toping aboundance.
Hard-head, subs. (American).—A man of good parts, physical, intellectual, or moral.
1824. R. B. Peake, Americans Abroad, i., 1. Dou. None of your flouting, by jumping jigs, I won’t stand it—we Americans have got hard heads—we warn’t brought up in the woods to be scart at by an owl—you can’t scare me so.