Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Hard (Adjective)
Hard as a brick.
—Anonymous
Hard as a cobble-stone.
—Anonymous
Hard as a cricket-ball.
—Anonymous
Hard as granite.
—Anonymous
Hard as hail stones.
—Anonymous
As hard as horn.
—Anonymous
Hard as marble.
—Anonymous
As hard as the rocks of Dundee.
—Anonymous
Hard as flint.
—Robert Burton
Hard as adamant.
—Robert Cawdray (A Treasurie or Store-house of Similies, 1600)
Hard as a 1907 prune.
—Helen Green
Hard as a barren stepmother’s slap.
—Lady Gregory
Hard as wire.
—John Heywood
As hard as the heart of a religious foe-curser.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
Hard as an egg at Easter.
—Vincent Stuckey Lean (Collectanea)
Hard as nails.
—Vincent Stuckey Lean (Collectanea)
Hard as iron.
—Thomas Lodge
Hardeneth like the Adama[n]t.
—John Lyly
Fingers, hard as a lobster’s claws.
—Guy de Maupassant
Hard as the devil’s nagnails.
—G. F. Northall (Folk Phrases)
Hard as a sheet of brass.
—Ouida
Hard as a pine-knot.
—James K. Paulding
Hard as steel.
—William Shakespeare
Hard as the palm of ploughman.
—William Shakespeare
Hard as the push of death.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Hard as a piece of the nether millstone.
—Old Testament
Hard as Severn salmon dried in Wales.
—Ned Ward
Hard as a flint stone.
—Leonard Wright (A Display of Dutie)