hard

hard 1 solid, *firm

Analogous words: compact, dense, *c!ose: consolidated, compacted, concentrated (see COMPACT vb): *hardened, indurated, callous

Antonyms: soft

Contrasted words: fluid, *Iiquid: flabby, flaccid, *Iimp: pliant, pliable, *plastic: flexible, *elastic, supple, resilient, springy

2 Hard, difficult, arduous are comparable when applied to tasks for mind or body to mean demanding great toil or effort in reaching the appointed or the desired end.

Hard is the simpler, blunter, and more general term; it implies the opposite of all that is implied by easy, but usually suggests nothing more specific

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a hard lesson

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a hard job

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a hard book to understand

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your easy reading, Sheridan said, is "damned hard writing "—Montague

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the American habit of tipping ... is a hard one to break— Joseph

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Difficult commonly implies the presence of obstacles to be surmounted or of complications to be removed; it therefore suggests the necessity for skill, ingenuity, sagacity, or courage

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[the tutor] armed for a work too difficult for thee; prepared by taste, by learning, and true worth, to form thy son, to strike his genius forth— Cowper

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men like fly-fishing, because it is difficult; they will not shoot a bird sitting, because it is easy— Russell

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Difficult is more widely applicable than hard, because it often means specifically hard to understand because abstruse, intricate, or abstract, or hard to deal with because thorny, knotty, cumbersome, delicate, or exacting

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he is a very difficult writer— Inge

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the difficult beauty of many passages ... of Winter's Tale or Coriolanus— Alexander

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I do not propose ... to enter upon the difficult question of Disestablishment— T. S. Eliot

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it was a difficult design and had to be executed exactly right— Roark Bradford

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Arduous stresses the need of laborious effort, of perseverance, and persistent exertion; thus, one may find a task difficult, but not arduous, because one has no sense of being kept at it against one's inclination; an ascent of a mountain may be arduous, but not especially difficult

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the arduous task of formulating legislation necessary to the country's welfare— Roosevelt

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determined to save him from a life of arduous toil— Cole

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Analogous words: *onerous, burdensome, oppressive, exacting: intricate, knotty, complicated, involved, *comp!ex: exhausting, fatiguing, wearying, tiring (see TIRE vb)

Antonyms: easy

Contrasted words: facile, light, simple, effortless (see EASY)