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hard up

B1 informal
In simple words

Not having enough money; being poor or in financial trouble.

Meanings

1 B1 idiomatic informal

Lacking enough money; experiencing financial hardship.

"We were quite hard up when the children were young, so holidays were a rare luxury."

"I was hard up, really hard up, and I didn't know what I was going to do."

— George Orwell, 'Down and Out in Paris and London', 1933
2 B2 idiomatic informal

Lacking or desperate for something other than money (usually followed by 'for').

"The screenwriters must have been really hard up for material to recycle that old storyline."

Usage notes

Used as a predicative adjective (after 'be'). Primarily British English. Can also be used more broadly to mean lacking something (e.g. 'hard up for ideas'), though the financial sense is most common. Generally implies a temporary or situational condition rather than extreme poverty.

Commonly used with

for cash for money for ideas for options financially at the moment

Forms

Base
hard up
I/you/we/they
3rd person
hards up
he/she/it
Past simple
harded up
yesterday
Past participle
harded up
have + pp
-ing form
harding up
continuous

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