Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to land hard

to land hard

3 4.6
To fall onto the ground with great force and possibly get hurt
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : caer con fuerza
  • The football player tripped and landed hard on the field, leaving him in pain.
  • landed hard on his back
  • land hard on the floor
  • landed hard on her shoulder

I was taking huge like steps and landing hard on the heel, all those elements.

Examples

  • A stone turned under his left foot, and he fell sideways into the bitter water, landing hard on his left knee.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • I landed hard on my face and knees, bleeding from the nose and mouth.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • I let go and rolled down a couple more steps, landing hard on the floor at the bottom.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Frantic, he slipped on the ice and landed hard, flat on his back.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • She flies back and down the shaft, lands hard on an elevator six stories below.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Then she smiled, and the next thing he knew, he had slid off his slanted rock and landed hard on his butt.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • On impact, the chandelier explodes into a thousand fragments; the Catwoman lands hard on her back and lies sprawled in the midst of the wreckage, unmoving.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Izzie leapt out, but he had not planned to do so at that spot, and though he avoided crashing into a tree, he landed hard, shoulder first, against a boulder, and spun upside down in a somersault, clutching at his shoulder.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • He slipped and landed hard on the pavement, bruising his knee.

  • During the final match, she took a leap off the diving board and landed hard in the water.

Synonyms

to hit the ground
vsto land hard
64 3.6

Touch the ground after falling or being dropped

falls with strong force causing pain or damage

Antonyms

to rise
718 1.0

To move upward into the air, like smoke or mist

to float
645 1.0

To stay or move on water without sinking, sometimes in the air

How Hard

crash
∞ 2.3
to slam down
  • Informal
14 6.0
to land hard
3 4.6
to land
∞ 1.0
to touch down
45 3.6

Surface Forms

land hard infinitive
landed hard past
landed hard past participle
landing hard present participle
lands hard third person singular

Morphology

land + hard

The meaning 'to fall or come down with great force' is directly and predictably derived from combining 'land' (to move down and rest on a surface) with 'hard' (forcefully/with strong impact) in its adverbial sense. This compositional manner-of-action pattern is common in English and cross-linguistically familiar, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should understand the expression without prior exposure.

Etymology

Land hard gives a clear picture: someone 'comes down' and hits the ground with a strong, painful impact, where land means 'come down' and hard shows the force of the hit. So the phrase means 'to fall or come down with great force', often causing pain or damage.