Sunday, June 17, 2012

Hard pressed / pushed


If you are hard pressed or hard pushed to do something, you experience great difficulty in doing it. Being pressed suggests being under pressure:
  • It seems to me that the Labour government will be hard pressed to win the next election.
  • We were hard pushed to complete all the preparations before the guests arrived.
Use of the adverb hard here suggests a lot of force being used against you. Note that hard also sometimes suggests physical force:
This door is inclined to stick, but if you push it hard, it will open.
pressed for time / money / etc
Pressed also collocates with time and money and other ideas in a similar way to hard pressed, suggesting difficulty:
  • Are you pressed for time? If not, I suggest we have some lunch.
  • This one's worn out. Why don't you buy a new one? ~ I'm a bit pressed for cash at the moment.
  • It's not really her subject, but she says she could teach beginners Spanish if we're really pressed.

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