How to Use hard lines in a Sentence

hard lines

plural noun
  • Be in like a stressful state and then perform at like even hard lines.
    — Outside Online, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Some worry, though, that softer rhetoric could give way to hard lines — again.
    — Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune, 3 Sep. 2023
  • There is old weather on their faces, on the hard lines of their jaws, on their chaotic mouths.
    — Kevin Barry, The New York Review of Books, 24 Mar. 2020
  • But squint and make the hard lines blur, this girl looks like a model from a magazine.
    — Lesley Finn, Longreads, 7 July 2022
  • Trump, for his part, seems inclined to take a hard line with Mexico.
    — Ephrat Livni, Quartz, 2 June 2019
  • Cream blush will give you that beautiful dewy look and a buffing dense brush helps with any hard lines from the cream blush.
    — Rachel Dube, SELF, 22 Feb. 2022
  • But its position draws a hard line that will not cover any cost overruns because of them.
    — Patrick O'Donnell, cleveland.com, 15 May 2018
  • Trump has unquestionably made good on his promise to take a hard line on Iran.
    — Michael Collins, USA TODAY, 5 Feb. 2020
  • But not all the lawmakers took a hard line with the executives.
    — NBC News, 8 May 2018
  • Border plants soften edges and hard lines in the landscape while adding lush layers to any planting.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 8 May 2026
  • But when pressed on specifics by senators, Muilenburg took a harder line.
    — Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY, 29 Oct. 2019
  • Trump does not hesitate to take credit for the hard line toward Russia.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 14 July 2018
  • The wide, sometimes sad, sometimes weary and emotionally full eyes, the hard lines of the faces, the clear weight of their lives.
    — Bob Guccione Jr, SPIN, 17 Feb. 2023
  • Some of those who took a hard line on immigrants saw the issue as a zero sum that took away from helping others close to home.
    — Jim Shultz, The New York Review of Books, 13 Feb. 2020
  • Why play their game at all as opposed to drawing a hard line and refusing to be further victimized?
    — Armstrong Williams, National Review, 3 Sep. 2019
  • The principal will take a harder line with students, Aguirre-Sacasa said.
    — Hal Boedeker, orlandosentinel.com, 21 July 2019
  • Musk draws a number of hard lines in the sand in the email for his employees, contractors, and suppliers.
    — Sean O'Kane, The Verge, 17 Apr. 2018
  • Mr Duterte’s hard line on drug dealers and other miscreants was at the core of his election campaign.
    — The Economist, 20 Feb. 2020
  • Duque has pledged lower taxes, a tougher approach on crime and a harder line on socialist Venezuela.
    — Anthony Faiola, chicagotribune.com, 17 June 2018
  • Like pretty much everything Hof says, the hard line between what is science and what is sophistry is slippery.
    — Rachel Sugar, Bon Appétit, 28 Oct. 2019
  • Baker said other companies, such as FedEx, have balked at drawing such a hard line.
    — Joshua Emerson Smith, sandiegouniontribune.com, 22 Apr. 2018
  • The Fed’s willingness to compromise contrasts with its hard line of recent years.
    — Lalita Clozel, WSJ, 2 July 2018
  • Trump suggested that Xi is the one who told Kim to take a harder line after the meeting was announced.
    — David Jackson, USA TODAY, 1 June 2018
  • Designed with fun in the sun in mind, this air sofa provides seating (and a bed when naptime calls) without the structure, weight, or hard lines.
    — Sharon Brandwein, Southern Living, 21 July 2023
  • Veterans of China's hip hop scene said the new rules are, like so many things in China, more about nuance than hard lines.
    — Marian Liu, CNN, 29 Mar. 2018
  • That's despite being urged to take a harder line by his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon.
    — Jeff Zeleny, Gloria Borger and Kevin Liptak, CNN, 31 Oct. 2017
  • That stage of athlete activism created hard lines among those who did and did not speak out against the US government.
    — Motez Bishara, CNN, 30 Nov. 2022
  • Currently, the menu draws hard lines between Mexican options and the Asian menu.
    — Nick Kindelsperger, chicagotribune.com, 16 Aug. 2021
  • Texas wants hard lines in the sand, but the global current is moving toward integration, not exclusion.
    — Robert Hoban, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
  • The Saudis have seized on his rhetoric toward Iran, and even Qatar, to take a worryingly hard line on both.
    — Ian Bremmer, Time, 11 Jan. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hard lines.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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