1857. Ducange Anglicus, Vulg. Tongue. Hard-up, a poor person.
Adv. phr. (colloquial).—1. Very badly in want of money; in urgent need
of anything. Also Hard-run and Hard-pushed.
1809–41. Th. Hook, The Sutherlands. He returned, and being hard up,
as we say, took it into his head to break a shop-window at
Liverpool, and take out some trumpery trinket stuff.
1821. Haggart, Life, p. 104. There I met in with two Edinburgh
snibs, who were hard up.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Merchant of Venice.’ Who by
showing at Operas, Balls, Plays, and Court, ... Had shrunk his
‘weak means,’ and was ‘stump’d’ and hard up.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xi. He ... was, not to put too fine
a point upon it hard-up.
1865. New York Herald. This anxiety ... shows conclusively that
they are hard-up for political capital.
1871. Lond. Figaro, 25 Jan. For years, England has been a refuge
for hard-up German princelings.
1887. Manville Fenn, This Man’s Wife, i., 13. I don’t look hard up
do I? No, because you’ve spent my money on your wretched dress.
1891. Fun, 25 Mar. You’re hard up, ain’t you? Stumped? Well, it’s
Threadneedle Street to a frying-pan, that if Popsy knew your real
name, he’d lend you a thousand or two like a shot.
English Synonyms.—Many under floored apply equally to hard-up; others
are:—At low water mark; cracked up; dead-broke; down on one’s luck;
fast; in Queer Street; in the last of pea time; in the last run of
shad; low down; low in the lay; oofless; out of favor with the
oof-bird; pebble-beached; seedy; short; sold-up; stony-broke; strapped;
stuck; stumped; suffering from an attack of the week’s (or month’s)
end; tight; on one’s uppers; under a cloud; on one’s beam ends.
French Synonyms.—Se mettre dans le bœuf (common = to go in for block
ornaments (q.v.)); être en brindezingue (mountebanks = gone to smash);
être brouillé avec la monnaie (familiar = to have had a row with one’s
banker); être coupé (printers’); être à la côte (familiar = on the
shelf); être fauché (thieves’ = cut down); être dans la purée
(thieves’); être molle (thieves’); être à la faridon (popular); être en
dèche (popular); être désargenté (thieves’ = oofless); être bref
(popular = short); être à fond de cale (popular = down to bed-rock);
être à la manque (popular = on short commons); manger de la misère
(popular = to sup sorrow); être dans le lac (popular = a hole); être
pané (general); panné comme la Hollande (general = very hard up).
Spanish Synonyms.—Estar pelado or ser un pelado (= skinned); tiñoso (=
scabby).
Italian Synonym.—Calcare a ventun ’ora.