hard-nosed
13
7.2
- adjective
- /hɑrd-noʊzd/
- John described his father as a dashing, ambitious businessman who had established an international reputation by being hard-nosed and shrewd.
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Watch on YouTubeI was, you know, I I'm kind of a hard nosed scientist.
- I was, you know, I I'm kind of a hard nosed scientist.
- And you know, I'm pretty, pretty hard nosed.
- But these guys, the Glazers, they rode that storm, they're hard nosed.
- Like you got yourself a good ballclub now a mat rule ballclub plays good, hard nosed, poised football.
- I want this partly because as a scientist, here's here's the attitude that I think hard nosed physicalists should have toward this.
- But there were other issues where as a senator, my attitude was, you know, very hard nosed.
- They're being very hard nosed about this in order to say, well you if you want to be a great writer, start writing, you know, and work on it right?
Examples
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By contrast, the business case relies on more hard-nosed, material calculations.
Academic text (2003) -
I have to be hard-nosed, okay?
-
Seated behind the lawyers are two guys with hard-nosed corporate looks about them.
Fiction book (1995) -
His likely successors have a more hard-nosed view of the EU.
Academic text (1994) -
Claims in this area are often based on wishful thinking rather than a hard-nosed sense of what's practical.
Blog text (18) -
Especially dealing on CL, you have to be a pretty hard-nosed haggler both buying and selling.
Blog text (27) -
Our clients don't want anything to do with our passions; they want hard-nosed expertise and skill.
Blog text (11) -
VCU Baseball had the reputation of hard-nosed players who would grind games out and find ways to beat you.
Blog text (26) -
The Bush administration's China policy, which was once confrontational, has evolved into a hard-nosed but cooperative dialogue.
Academic text (2007) -
The CEO implemented a hard-nosed strategy to cut costs and improve profits.
Synonyms
465
2.6
About how something works in real life rather than in ideas
61
6.3
Being practical and realistic when solving problems
9
6.5
A person who is tough and does not show feelings or pity
6
6.1
A person who deals with problems in a realistic, determined way and is not easily moved by feelings
4
8.2
Tough and not easily upset because of difficult past experiences
1
5.5
Practical and realistic, using facts and experience
Antonyms
How Tough
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Hard-nosed combines hard ('tough') and nose, giving the image of someone with a 'tough face' who is not moved by feelings. So a hard-nosed person is practical and not easily influenced by emotion.