| learn the hard way learn (something) the hard way to obtain knowledge or understanding through experience. We'd never done anything like this, so we learned how to build a house the hard way. Since he won't take advice from anyone, I guess he is going to have to learn the hard way. Usage notes: often used in the form find (something) out the hard way: He found out the hard way that he needed help. I debated where to put this; here or at "learn the hard way" & did it both ways! then chose this, as it's easy enough to define here & is used occasionally with other words (eg, discover)--SL, 10/02 |