What's the difference between firm and hard?

Firm


Definition:

  • (superl.) Fixed; hence, closely compressed; compact; substantial; hard; solid; -- applied to the matter of bodies; as, firm flesh; firm muscles, firm wood.
  • (superl.) Not easily excited or disturbed; unchanging in purpose; fixed; steady; constant; stable; unshaken; not easily changed in feelings or will; strong; as, a firm believer; a firm friend; a firm adherent.
  • (superl.) Solid; -- opposed to fluid; as, firm land.
  • (superl.) Indicating firmness; as, a firm tread; a firm countenance.
  • (a.) The name, title, or style, under which a company transacts business; a partnership of two or more persons; a commercial house; as, the firm of Hope & Co.
  • (a.) To fix; to settle; to confirm; to establish.
  • (a.) To fix or direct with firmness.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Villagers, including one man who has been left disabled and the relatives of six men who were killed, are suing ABG in the UK high court, represented by British law firm Leigh Day, alleging that Tanzanian police officers shot unarmed locals.
  • (2) However, direct measurements of mediator release should be carried out to reach a firm conclusion.
  • (3) Video games specialist Game was teetering on the brink of collapse on Friday after a rescue deal put forward by private equity firm OpCapita appeared to have been given the cold shoulder by lenders who are owed more than £100m.
  • (4) One is that the issue of whether the World Cup should go ahead in Russia and Qatar still firmly remains on the table.
  • (5) Neil Blessitt Bristol • We need to establish what the legal position is with regard to the establishment by the government of a private company co-owned by the Department of Health and the French firm Sopra Steria.
  • (6) Particular attention has been paid to diabetes mellitus and chronic pancreatitis, but a firm conclusion cannot be drawn.
  • (7) Pupils who disrupt the learning of their classmates are dealt with firmly and, in many cases, a short suspension is an effective way of nipping bad behaviour in the bud."
  • (8) Cloning of the A-T allele(s) will assist in the early or prenatal diagnosis of A-T and provide a firm basis for determining who, in the general population, carries this gene and is therefore at a high risk of cancer.
  • (9) We are firmly opposed to that," an unidentified spokesman from the ministry of industry and information technology told the state news agency, Xinhua.
  • (10) Officers arrested her last month during the protest against oil drilling by the energy firm Cuadrilla at Balcombe in West Sussex – a demonstration Lucas has attended several times.
  • (11) "At the moment there are about 1,600 criminal justice firms, and they all have a contract with the lord chancellor.
  • (12) VAT increases don't just hit the poor more than the rich, they also hit small firms, threaten retail jobs and, by boosting inflation, could also lead to higher interest rates."
  • (13) Her story is an incredible tale of triumph over tragedy: a tormented childhood during China's Cultural Revolution, detention and forced exile after exposing female infanticide – then glittering success as the head of a major US technology firm.
  • (14) We firmly believe that a systematic approach to the 12-lead ECG can provide information that can diagnose the difference between ventricular and supraventricular tachycardia, and in many instances diagnose the mechanism and site of origin of the supraventricular tachycardia.
  • (15) Terry Waite Chair, Benedict Birnberg Deputy chair, Antonio Ferrara CEO The Prisons Video Trust • If I want to build a bridge, I call in a firm of civil engineers who specialise in bridge-building.
  • (16) The court hearing – in a case of the kind likely to be heard in secret if the government's justice and security bill is passed – was requested by the law firm Leigh Day and the legal charity Reprieve, acting for Serdar Mohammed, tortured by the Afghan security services after being transferred to their custody by UK forces.
  • (17) Doubts about Hinkley Point have deepened after a detailed report by HSBC’s energy analysts described eight key challenges to the project, which will be built by the state-backed French firm EDF and be part-financed by investment from China .
  • (18) China's relations with the NTC were strained last week when it emerged Chinese arms firms had talked to Muammar Gaddafi's representatives about weapons sales .
  • (19) It may not point to independence – nor, given that large swaths of Wales remain firmly dominated by Labour, mean any huge advance for Plaid Cymru.
  • (20) In order to identify these anchorage structures, the non-DNA materials that remain firmly bound to chromosomal DNA under conditions that disintegrate the high salt-stable architecture of nuclei were investigated.

Hard


Definition:

  • (superl.) Not easily penetrated, cut, or separated into parts; not yielding to pressure; firm; solid; compact; -- applied to material bodies, and opposed to soft; as, hard wood; hard flesh; a hard apple.
  • (superl.) Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily apprehended, decided, or resolved; as a hard problem.
  • (superl.) Difficult to accomplish; full of obstacles; laborious; fatiguing; arduous; as, a hard task; a disease hard to cure.
  • (superl.) Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
  • (superl.) Difficult to bear or endure; not easy to put up with or consent to; hence, severe; rigorous; oppressive; distressing; unjust; grasping; as, a hard lot; hard times; hard fare; a hard winter; hard conditions or terms.
  • (superl.) Difficult to please or influence; stern; unyielding; obdurate; unsympathetic; unfeeling; cruel; as, a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character.
  • (superl.) Not easy or agreeable to the taste; stiff; rigid; ungraceful; repelling; as, a hard style.
  • (superl.) Rough; acid; sour, as liquors; as, hard cider.
  • (superl.) Abrupt or explosive in utterance; not aspirated, sibilated, or pronounced with a gradual change of the organs from one position to another; -- said of certain consonants, as c in came, and g in go, as distinguished from the same letters in center, general, etc.
  • (superl.) Wanting softness or smoothness of utterance; harsh; as, a hard tone.
  • (superl.) Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
  • (superl.) Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in the coloring or light and shade.
  • (adv.) With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly.
  • (adv.) With difficulty; as, the vehicle moves hard.
  • (adv.) Uneasily; vexatiously; slowly.
  • (adv.) So as to raise difficulties.
  • (adv.) With tension or strain of the powers; violently; with force; tempestuously; vehemently; vigorously; energetically; as, to press, to blow, to rain hard; hence, rapidly; as, to run hard.
  • (adv.) Close or near.
  • (v. t.) To harden; to make hard.
  • (n.) A ford or passage across a river or swamp.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Lucy and Ed will combine coverage of hard and breaking news with a commitment to investigative journalism, which their track record so clearly demonstrates”.
  • (2) Sierra Leone is one of the three West Africa nations hit hard by an Ebola epidemic this year.
  • (3) Topical and systemic antibiotic therapy is common in dermatology, yet it is hard to find a rationale for a particular route in some diseases.
  • (4) Given Australia’s number one position as the worst carbon emitter per capita among major western nations it seems hardly surprising that islanders from Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and other small island developing states have been turning to Australia with growing exasperation demanding the country demonstrate an appropriate response and responsibility.
  • (5) They had learned through hard experience what Frederick Douglass once taught -- that freedom is not given, it must be won, through struggle and discipline, persistence and faith.
  • (6) In 60 rhesus monkeys with experimental renovascular malignant arterial hypertension (25 one-kidney and 35 two-kidney model animals), we studied the so-called 'hard exudates' or white retinal deposits in detail (by ophthalmoscopy, and stereoscopic color fundus photography and fluorescein fundus angiography, on long-term follow-up).
  • (7) It is a moment to be grateful for what remains of Labour's hard left: an amendment to scrap the cap was at least tabled by John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn but stood no chance.
  • (8) She stopped working only when the pain made it hard for her to get to work.
  • (9) He was reclusive, I know that, and he was often given a hard time for it.
  • (10) This defeat, though, is hardly a good calling card for the main job.
  • (11) Since this test is easily performed and hardly stresses the patient, it should routinely be the initial one for the diagnosis of renal osteopathy.
  • (12) Never become so enamored of your own smarts that you stop signing up for life’s hard classes.
  • (13) But I don't wish to be too hard on the judge for not taking that view.
  • (14) Our campaign has been going for some time and each step in our progress has been hard won, by campaigners paid and volunteer alike.
  • (15) I am rooting hard for you.” Ronald Reagan simply told his former vice-president Bush: “Don’t let the turkeys get you down.” By 10.30am Michelle Obama and Melania Trump will join the outgoing and incoming presidents in a presidential limousine to drive to the Capitol.
  • (16) All the same, it's hard to approach the school, which charges nearly £28,000 for boarders and nearly £19,000 for day girls and is sometimes called "the girls' Eton", without a few prejudices.
  • (17) Governmental officials as well as medical scientists in Taiwan have worked hard in recent years to develop and to implement various measures, such as prenatal diagnosis and neonatal screening, to lower the incidence of hereditary diseases and mental retardation in the population.
  • (18) Cooper, who was briefly a social worker in Los Angeles, also suggests working hard to build a rapport with colleagues in hotdesking situations.
  • (19) Critics of wind power peddle the same old myths about investment in new energy sources adding to families' fuel bills , preferring to pick a fight with people concerned about the environment, than stand up to vested interests in the energy industry, for the hard-pressed families and pensioners being ripped off by the energy giants.
  • (20) The spirit is great here, the players work very hard, we kept the belief when we were in third place and now we are here.