Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Stubborn; willful.
  • adjective Realistic; pragmatic.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Shrewd; intelligent or clearheaded and firm; not easily deceived or humbugged: as, a hard-headed politician.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having sound judgment; sagacious; shrewd; practical and pragmatic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Stubborn; wilful.
  • adjective Realistic; pragmatic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory
  • adjective unreasonably rigid in the face of argument or entreaty or attack

Etymologies

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Examples

  • ZAKARIA: But there's also a part of it that has to do with foreign policy, where the Republican Party that you served under seemed to stand for something very coherent, a kind of hardheaded internationalism, engagement, pragmatism.

    CNN Transcript Nov 9, 2008 2008

  • ZAKARIA: It's a difficult question because McCain used to be more of a kind of hardheaded, pragmatic Republican, the type of Henry Kissinger or Brent Scowcroft.

    CNN Transcript May 30, 2008 2008

  • Such decisions were a kind of hardheaded practicality he'd picked up from his father without really noticing he had done so.

    Delta Search Shatner, William 1997

  • Evan Mecham as "hardheaded" and called on him to resign, and two years later stated that the Republican party had been taken over by a

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] 2010

  • The first 48 hours I was kind of hardheaded about it.

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2010

  • Evan Mecham as "hardheaded" and called on him to resign, and two years later stated that the Republican party had been taken over by a

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • "He is kind of hardheaded and doesn't want to take charity," Wolfe said.

    Local News | The Bryan College Station Eagle 2009

  • In the telling of the history of the West, “bottom-up” scholars replaced the silly romanticism of older historians with a far more intelligent and hardheaded narrative of American expansion.

    A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell 2010

  • Osumi, sensei, thought that an American might be too hardheaded for seiki to enter, so she went overboard in softening him up.

    The Bushman Way of Tracking God PhD Bradford Keeney 2010

  • If I weren't so damn hardheaded and love bowhunting so much, I would have traded that treestand time for more time fishing.

    Wisconsin Senator Demands Firing of State Deer Managers 2009

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