Hard-bit (or Bit of Hard), subs. (venery).—1. The penis in erection;
whence (2), for women, the act of connection.
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.
1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, p. 110. Most of the passengers had
disappeared for the night, and only a knot of hard-heads were left
upon deck.
Hard-hit. To be hard hit, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To have
experienced a heavy loss; as over a race, at cards, etc.