hard done by

idiom

British
: treated harshly or unfairly
He felt very hard done by when he was laid off after many years of faithful service.

Examples of hard done by in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Gay men confronting this history can sometimes feel a little hard done by, as if they had been deprived of a chance to be heroic, or even naughty. Nikhil Krishnan, The New Yorker, 16 Jan. 2023 Burnley felt hard done by when Ashley Barnes appeared to equalize in the 19th minute. Paul Gittings, CNN, 27 Dec. 2020

Dictionary Entries Near hard done by

Cite this Entry

“Hard done by.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hard%20done%20by. Accessed 10 Nov. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!