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

"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

You would be hard put to find a great composer who didn't use what came before, and the more progressive the composer, the bigger the bandit.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 14, 2015

If Sir Ector had not been lucky enough to own a little land in Pie Street, on which there stood a respectable inn, they would have been hard put to it to find a lodging.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White