hard yards

English

Etymology

A sporting analogy referring to the game of rugby football, where making progress on the field, in measurements of yards, may lead to accomplishment and victory.

Alternatively derived from sailing, when furling or unfurling the canvas from certain (perhaps higher) spars was both dangerous and difficult.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

the hard yards pl (plural only)

1. (originally Australia) The key effort in completing a difficult task.

   Synonym: heavy lifting

   do the hard yards

   put in the hard yards

   • 2007, Ian Cocoran, The Art of Digital Branding, Allworth Press, →ISBN, pages 128–129:

     As with coupons and vouchers, there is seemingly no end to the opportunities that exist to improve a Web site's traffic flow by giving something away for nothing—as long as users are prepared to put in the hard yards, of course.

   • 2010, Kelly Doust, A Life in Frocks, Sydney: Murdoch Books, →ISBN, page 129:

     Those clever women at the frontier of fashion do all the hard yards for us, every month, by attending the shows in London, Paris and New York.

   • 2017 August 22, Peter Lewis, “In a tough campaign the marriage equality team faces hard yards ahead”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     In tough conditions, with no room for complacency, the campaign will need to slog out the hard yards, give it 110% and leave it all on the field.

   • 2021 December, Jon Dale, “Dead Moon fever!”, in Uncut, →ISSN, page 8:

     The couple had already put in the hard yards: Fred started out in '60s freakbeat combos The Weeds and Lollipop Shoppe, with Toody joining him in early '80s punk trio The Rats.

Further reading

• Eric Partridge (2005) “hard yards”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 1 (A–I), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 967.