hard casen.adj.

c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 11457 (MED) Þer was þe erl of ferers ibrouȝt in hard cas.

?a1475 Ludus Coventriae (1922) 111 (MED) Gracyous god in hefne trone, comforte my spowse in þis hard cas.

?1548 Ld. Berners tr. D. de San Pedro Castell of Loue sig. D.viii In the hard case that I ame in,..I am better dysposed to ende my lyfe, then to make any reasones.

1591 E. Spenser Prosopopoia in Complaints 371 Its an hard case, when men of good deseruing Must..be..asked for their pas by euerie squib, That list at will them to reuile or snib.

1610 H. Broughton Iob xxx. 138 When others were in hard case: I parched in sorow.

1660 H. Oxinden Charls Triumphant ii. ix. 21 Some of them..many nights did neither sleep, nor slumber, For very grief ofs Majesty's hard case.

?1690 N. Burne Leader-Haughs & Yarow (single sheet) For many a place stands in hard case, Where Burns were blyth beforrow.

1733 J. Goole Contract Violated 44 A hard Case, that the Wickedness of another should lay any Man under such a shocking Obligation!

1816 J. Austen Emma III. xiii. 238 It was a hard case to be obliged still to lower herself in his opinion. View more context for this quotation

1864 J. S. Le Fanu Uncle Silas II. xvi. 247 It is a hard case, Miss, a lad o' spirit should be kept so tight. I havn't a shilling.

1912 Billboard 9 Nov. 3/1 Contrawise, the man whose work is monotonous and repellent is in a hard case.

2011 R. T. MacIntyre Angels at Eastport Bridge 550 It would be considered a hard case, a melancholy tragedy of sorts for the nature of one like Devon.

1920 Blackwood's Mag. Mar. 322/2 The mate of a Yankee hard-case.

1567 A. Golding tr. Ovid Metamorphosis (new ed.) xiii. f. 160^v I must confesse (whereat his grace shall no displeasure take) Before a parciall iudge I vndertooke a ryght hard cace [L. difficilem..causam].

1641 W. Hakewill Manner of Holding Parl. in Eng. sig. C4^v A hard case doe come before the Chancellour of England, or a matter hard to be judged of shall be brought before the Justices.

1683 J. Dunton Compl. Statesman 57 The Lord Treasurer being able to make nothing of Mr. Blany's paper, (which was a hard case) the House of Lords proceeded to a Resolution.

1707 Prince Butler's Tale in Poems on Affairs of State IV. 423 I saw a mighty, zealous Crew, Some for Old Stock, and some for New, Were pro and conning their hard Cases.

1765 J. Rayner Digest Law Conc. Libels xii. 28 The Jury thought it a hard Case; and therefore refused to do any thing else, than find the Circumstances specially, that were given in Evidence before them.

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xviii. 150 The Tories..though they could not deny that there had been some hard cases, maintained that, on the whole, substantial justice had been done.

1883 Boston Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 15 Mar. 256/1 We think we owe everything to our quinine or to antiseptics, on account of some past success; we then encounter a hard case and find ourselves powerless.

1912 Common Cause Apr. 20/1 It was indeed a hard case as the evils of the Socialist itch are harder to cure than the original ignorance of the students.

1977 M. Helprin Refiner's Fire 7 The doctors smashed their fists against walls and tables. All the hard cases had emasculated their skill.

2014 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 15 Jan. a1 Rackauckas defended the prosecution, saying he always knew it would be a hard case, but the facts required that the officers be charged.

1828 B. Rand in D. A. Tyng Rep. Supreme Court Mass. (rev. ed.) 10 328 (note) In reading this case one is reminded of the saying of Mr. Justice Buller. ‘Hard cases make shipwreck of the law.’]

1832 J. Patteson in Legal Observer 22 Sept. 332/1 Although this may be a hard case, we do not know where it will stop; for hard cases make bad law.

1861 Evening Herald 14 June 4/2 ‘Hard cases make bad law’ is a maxim often referred to by judges when they are pressed to strain the law in order to avoid an injustice.

1909 Spectator 22 May 809/1 ‘Hard cases make bad law’, and also bad policy.

1955 Amer. Bar Assoc. Jrnl. Jan. 15/2 It is a truism that hard cases make bad law, and many of the technical absurdities found in the law had their origin in the humane effort of judges to escape from the imposition of excessive sentences.

2006 Independent 24 July 24/5 I realise that ‘hard cases make bad law’. But I believe that sooner or later we shall have to contrive a law that, in certain strictly limited cases, will permit assisted suicide.

1842 Life in West 323 A canoe full of ‘hard cases’ (vagabonds) had passed up the river.

1897 Silver Lake (Colorado) Rec. 30 Dec. When the hole was dug the captain ordered that the hard-case soldier be stood in it up to his neck.

1928 Sunday Disp. 29 July 2 Half a dozen particularly hard-case units of the Flying Squad.

a1936 R. Kipling Something of Myself (1937) ii. 22 It [sc. a school]..had been made up..by drafts from Haileybury..and, I think, a percentage of ‘hard cases’ from other schools.

1966 Life 13 May 37/2 He found a new companionship many hard-case loners have cherished. It was with animals.

2011 Sun (Nexis) 16 May 17 Someone spotted this bulge in the waistband of one of the bloke's trousers. He was a bit of a hardcase and pulled out this gun.

1892 Truth (Sydney) 8 May 3/7 What a study were those faces! Many of them real ‘hard cases’.

1900 H. Lawson Over Sliprails 66 After dinner a humorous old hard case mysteriously took us aside.

1950 ‘A. P. Gaskell’ in Landfall 4 18 Cliff was a hard case. He knew lots of yarns too.

1976 N. V. Wallace Bush Lawyer 172 ‘He's quite a character.’ ‘What's that?’ she queried. ‘A hard case,’ I said.

2014 N.Z. Herald (Nexis) 13 Jan. Dad was a good father as far as providing the basics. He was a likeable guy, a hard case.