"hard upon you"
Posted by R. Berg on June 22, 2001
In Reply to: "Hard upon you" posted by Jonny Lever on June 22, 2001
: Hi!
: What does "when someone is hard upon you" mean?
: In the first place is there a phrase "hard upon"?
: Thanks in advance.
Yes, there is. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "hard upon (on)" as "close before or after so as to press upon." Example: "It was now hard upon three o'clock" . For one person to be hard upon another in a literal sense would require some such setting as a footrace where two runners are close together on the track and the one behind is closing the gap. The phrase might apply figuratively to a business competitor, for instance, or to a detective hot on somebody's trail. I don't know whether the dictionary meaning fits the context where you found the phrase, though.
- "Hard upon you" ESC 06/22/01