hard put

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Without the label you’d be hard put to know he’d painted them.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 24, 2026

There’s a compare-and-contrast element to their individual stories, underscored by frequent cross-cutting, though one would be hard put to pull any great meaning from the juxtapositions.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 14, 2024

"People come up to me now at conventions and say 'you can do this as a job?' I'm like 'just try really hard, put your artwork out there and it can happen'."

From BBC • Apr. 29, 2023

Graham and Goold aren’t comfortable with intimacy, and this is just one of the ways in which their show is modern: one is hard put to find young playwrights who talk about love.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 29, 2019

Even Apollo for a few minutes was hard put to it to overtake her; still, of course, he soon gained.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton