hard-nosed
- adjective
- /hɑrd-noʊzd/
- John described his father as a dashing, ambitious businessman who had established an international reputation by being hard-nosed and shrewd.
I 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
About how something works in real life rather than in ideas
Being practical and realistic when solving problems
A person who deals with problems in a realistic, determined way and is not easily moved by feelings
Tough and not easily upset because of difficult past experiences
A person who is tough and does not show feelings or pity
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.