hard put

hard put

Struggling to do or accomplish something, especially because it seems impossible. You'll be hard put to find a better guy than Bill. Come on—if we don't leave soon, we'll be hard put to get there on time.
See also: hard, put
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

hard put (to do something)

 and hard pressed (to do something)
able to do something only with great difficulty. I'm hard put to come up with enough money to pay the rent. I get hard put like that about once a month.
See also: hard, put
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

hard put

Undergoing great difficulty: Under the circumstances, he was hard put to explain himself.
See also: hard, put
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • group
  • a committee is a group of men who keep minutes and waste hours
  • pass with flying colors
  • pass with flying colours
  • with flying colors, pass with
  • come through (something) with flying colors
  • coming through
  • come through
  • get (something) over with
  • get it over with
References in periodicals archive
* SETTING UP BANKS for high-speed computer servers and communication hardware is not cheap, and since smaller vendors will be hard put to finance such a venture, it's probable that the wave of consolidation that has plagued the industry for nearly a decade will accelerate.
Tax software hits the Net
One would be hard put to decide which is more amazing -- to reveal one's private life so intimately to a total stranger (the pseudocabdriver) or to agree blithely to allow this outpouring to be shown to an audience.
The Best of "Taxicab Confessions."
Tanner, after quoting Bell, comments, "It is little wonder that, almost forty years after Bell issued her challenge, Miltonists are still hard put to find the vocabulary she calls for" (28).
Anxiety in Eden: A Kierkegaardian Reading of Paradise Lost
And in many areas of the world, people taking home good paychecks from newly created jobs or who manage companies that are hard put to keep up with the demand for new wood products will agree with her.
Mater: innovator
So far, however, the pro-business sector is hard put to identify many other large companies with greatly increased workforces.
Bad news - good news
But most people are hard put to imagine say, successfully sniffing their way blinfolded to the grocery store.
Tracking the undersea scent: a robot mimics the lobster's keen sense of smell
Indeed, the overconscientious (by the standards of that time) physician who looked for some published discussion on organizing medical services better would be hard put to find any.
The Clinician's Guide to Managed Mental Health Care
One would be hard put to it to deduce any of this from H.H.
A History of the Roman World: 753-146 BC
Lately, even the spies sometimes seem hard put to define what "national security" is.
Eavesdroppings: from the Bay of Pigs to Iran-contra, the CIA has a sorry legacy. But we need it all the same
The pensioners among them say they are hard put to make ends meet and therefore holding a stall is a significant contribution to their modest budget.
BEKTESHI: IT'S TOO LATE FOR CHANGE, GREEN MARKET LAW TO ENTER INTO FORCE ON 1 JANUARY
One will be hard put to find a person of his calibre.
Shaikh Aziz
Speaking at the signing of an agreement on the Free Higher Education Act on Wednesday, the President said the country was hard put to 'satisfy the food [needs] of the Filipinos.'
Duterte: PH will always import rice
The advent of so many diverse forms of media has resulted in many businesses being hard put for choice regarding the best medium through which they can promote their products or services.
The written word
After 300 years of integration you would be hard put to find an English person without a drop of Scottish blood in them somewhere down the line.
Scots should see strength of union; FEEDBACK
But then I'm hard put to understand how the Games benefit anyone, let alone us lot up in the frozen north.
The Olympics are just a mug's Games