Phrase guide

hard up

adj · verb · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Lacking money; impecunious; in financial difficulties.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: colloquial

Examples

  • 1886, Jerome K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, On being hard up I can speak with authority on the subject of being hard up. I have been a provincial actor. If further evidence be required, which I do not think likely, [...]

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: almsless, arm, badly off, bankrupt, beggared, beggarly, boracic, broke, broken, broker than the Ten Commandments, depauperate, destitute, dirt poor, disadvantaged, down and out, down at heel, down on one's luck, down on one's uppers, empty-handed, farthingless, feeling the pinch, flat, goodless, groatless, hard up, impecunious, impoverished, in need, indigent, insolvent, lower-class, moneyless, necessitous, needy, oofless, pauperized, penniless, penurious, pinched, pok kai, poor, poor as a church mouse, poor as a rat, poor as Job, possessionless, poverty-ridden, poverty-stricken, shillingless, skint, stone-broke, stony-broke, strapped, stuck, threadbare, unwealthy, wealthless

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Lacking anything.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: colloquial

Examples

  • We were hard up for amusements.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Desperate.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly, colloquial

Examples

  • Dating him? She must be hard up.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

verb

Meaning 4

Synonym of harden up (to become or make hard)

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: harden up

Antonyms: none provided

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

not having enough money to pay for necessities

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: impecunious, in straitened circumstances(p), penniless, penurious, pinched

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

12 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Dutch: blut — lacking money
  • Dutch: platzak — lacking money
  • Galician: necesitado — lacking money
  • Galician: nun apuro — lacking money
  • Polish: spłukany — lacking money
  • Polish: bez grosza — lacking money
  • Polish: bez grosza przy duszy — lacking money
  • Polish: goły i wesoły — lacking money
  • Portuguese: teso — lacking money
  • Russian: на мели́ (na melí) — lacking money
  • Russian: без гроша́ (bez grošá) — lacking money
  • Serbo-Croatian: шворц (švorc) — lacking money