hard up

Idioms and Phrases

In need, poor, as in Unemployment is rising and many families are hard up , or With widespread emigration, Russia is finding itself hard up for scientists and other professional people . [ Colloquial ; early 1800s]

Example Sentences

Hard up as we are for shell he thinks it best to blaze it away freely before closing and to trust our bayonets when we get in.

From Project Gutenberg

They were regularly hard up, and went through no end of trouble.

From Project Gutenberg

Haydon, hard up, as usual, went to Kensington to ask his friend for the loan of £5. '

From Project Gutenberg

Their salesmen are on the road trying to sell tin plate, but the tinners are so hard up that few of them can buy.

From Project Gutenberg

She told me she bought it from a Japanese acrobat who was out of an engagement and desperately hard up.

From Project Gutenberg