rock hard
11
3.2
- adjective
:
duro como una roca
- After hours in the freezer, the ice cream became rock hard and difficult to scoop.
- rock-hard abs
- rock-hard muscles
- rock-hard body
That is way too high pressure if it's rock hard.
- That is way too high pressure if it's rock hard.
- Again, you're rock hard, I'm telling you.
- But I am Tiffany curious about why a rock hard penis does not equate to male behavior.
Examples
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Dried fish, a rock-hard hank of barley bread, strips of dried reindeer meat.
Fiction book (1993) -
The ground is rock-hard, but you see drag marks.
-
And then, after a couple of minutes, it would go rock hard.
-
The bottom field's rock hard.
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These potatoes were rock hard when I started.
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I started with rock-hard, no organic matter clay, one of the worst possible starting points.
Blog text (12) -
Even from a distance, his neck looked rock-hard and ruler-straight; his steps were quick and choppy.
Fiction book (2000) -
In his boxing days, Detective Bill Jennings had a flat, rock-hard gut.
Fiction book (2000) -
Far away in the darkness, the sound of hoofbeats echoed on the rock-hard roadbed.
Fiction book (1992) -
Tiosinte's rock hard seeds were barely edible, but it's fibrous husk could be turned into a versatile material.
Synonyms
1
3.9
Very hard and not easy to break
1
7.7
Very strong and not easily broken or changed
Hard and solid like a rock
Very strong and not likely to break or change
Very firm and unwilling to change in attitude or mind
How Hard
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'extremely hard' is directly and transparently built from 'rock' (stone) + 'hard' (firm) as an intensifying adjectival phrase, following the obvious simile 'as hard as a rock'. This compositional pattern (cf. 'stone-hard') is common and cross-linguistically recognizable, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Rock hard comes from a simple picture: the word rock and the word hard make you imagine something as solid as a stone. Think of bread baked until it is like a rock or muscles that feel very firm, and that's why rock hard means 'extremely hard or solid'.