How to Use hard-pressed in a Sentence

hard-pressed

adjective
  • The Beavers will be hard-pressed to reach that level of success.
    — Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 1 Mar. 2024
  • In the Lions’ den at Ford Field, Williams will be hard-pressed to find running room.
    — Bill Reinhard, New York Daily News, 11 Jan. 2024
  • The Bulls take on the Bucks tonight in Milwaukee, but Chicago fans will be hard-pressed to watch it.
    — Justin Kaufmann, Axios, 25 Oct. 2024
  • If that occurs, the Fed could be hard-pressed to continue its rate-cutting push.
    — Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 3 Jan. 2025
  • Paramount may find itself hard-pressed to go without Nielsen for long.
    — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 1 Oct. 2024
  • Paramount may find itself hard-pressed to go without Nielsen for long.
    — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 26 Sep. 2024
  • Simply put, the Hurricanes will be hard-pressed to avoid an upset.
    — Keven Lerner, Sun Sentinel, 2 Oct. 2024
  • But if the House can squeeze its plan through incredibly tight margins, the Senate will be hard-pressed to refuse it.
    — Riley Beggin, USA TODAY, 14 Feb. 2025
  • Kansas City has been hard-pressed to find a second receiver that can match Hopkins, and that might be the case now.
    — James Brizuela, Newsweek, 13 Dec. 2024
  • Even users going through the most severe TikTok withdrawal would be hard-pressed to buy a used phone for the price of a 2025 Toyota Prius.
    — Hank Sanders, New York Times, 24 Jan. 2025
  • Miners have already invested in their equipment and would be hard-pressed to throw it all away, for one.
    — Justine Calma, The Verge, 11 July 2023
  • Indeed, Justice Thomas would have been hard-pressed to get a loan from a traditional lender.
    — Julie Tate, New York Times, 5 Aug. 2023
  • The Lionesses will be hard-pressed to beat the French, who finally found their form in a 6-1 dissection of China.
    — John Powers, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Aug. 2023
  • Absent outside help, first-time buyers are often hard-pressed to put 20% down.
    — Aldo Svaldi, The Denver Post, 5 May 2024
  • But young renters would be hard-pressed to find a market that isn’t rapidly outpacing their paycheck.
    — Jane Thier, Fortune, 29 Mar. 2024
  • The returns might help the team better down the road, and the Bruins had already been hard-pressed to deliver results before the deadline.
    — Carol Schram, Forbes.com, 31 Mar. 2025
  • But the Tiffany network will be hard-pressed to be the driver of significant growth for the entire company.
    — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 18 Jan. 2024
  • Whoever gets the job will be hard-pressed to turn around an economy that’s collapsed in recent years.
    — Dana Khraiche, Bloomberg.com, 5 June 2023
  • Even if everything breaks perfectly for Schilling, a former Grand Canyon assistant, the Waves will be hard-pressed to crack the top five.
    — Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 27 June 2024
  • Many borrowers could be hard-pressed to get new funding for those properties.
    — Steve Brown, Dallas News, 8 June 2023
  • But most of the candidates, as reported by Politico, would be hard-pressed to make it past Harris if Biden steps down or is replaced.
    — Ross O'Keefe, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 1 July 2024
  • Had the Pac-12 remained intact, Cal and Stanford would be hard-pressed to compete in the emerging environment.
    — Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 9 Aug. 2024
  • Johnson will be hard-pressed to stem the infighting if Republicans retain control of the House next year.
    — Max Thornberry, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 3 Oct. 2024
  • With Egypt deep in debt and hard-pressed to pay for imports such as wheat and energy, the currency has crashed, while some goods have become difficult to find.
    — Vivian Yee, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2025
  • With Egypt deep in debt and hard-pressed to pay for imports such as wheat and energy, the currency has crashed, while some goods have become difficult to find.
    — Vivian Yee, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2025
  • Someone from Mexico City or Madrid sitting at the next table could be hard-pressed to follow their rare dialect.
    — Simon Romero Desiree Rios, New York Times, 9 Apr. 2023
  • But with stock in AMC having come back down to earth in value, the exhibition giant has been hard-pressed to keep raising fresh cash to run its business.
    — Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Mar. 2023
  • But with stock in AMC having come back down to earth in value, the exhibition giant had been hard-pressed to keep raising fresh cash to run its business.
    — Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Aug. 2023
  • But with stock in AMC having come back down to earth in value, the exhibition giant has been hard-pressed to keep raising fresh cash to run its business.
    — Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 July 2023
  • If Trump does make an exception, analysts say that would be a big win for India, though others are hard-pressed to see this happen.
    — Seema Mody, CNBC, 27 Feb. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hard-pressed.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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