Dictionary

hard and fast en · ADJ

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative, not-comparable) Alternative form of hard-and-fast.
   alt of hard-and-fast
   • In the spring of 1857, I, with several friends, left Hongkong for Shanghai, viâ Foochow, in the small coasting steamer Antelope. No noteworthy incident occurred until after leaving Foochow when, as we were enjoying our after dinner coffee and cigars, and by chance discussing the question of thirteen sitting down at table that had occurred at a dinner at which one of the party had shortly before been present, a violent thump and tremulous motion of the vessel announced the unpleasant fact that we had struck upon something. We rushed on deck and found the steamer hard and fast on a reef near Matsu Island. Fortunately the day was fine and there was no sea on. 1890 February 28, W. S. Wetmore, “RECOLLECTIONS OF LIFE IN CHINA IN THE FIFTIES.”, in North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, volume XLIV, number 1178, Shanghai, →OCLC, page 256, column 1:
   • Many doctors, and indeed the F.D.A., say they are going to wait for a 4,400-patient study that is under way before they draw hard and fast conclusions, but those results won't be due until 2009. 2007 June 11, David Carr, “Call The Doctor”, in New York Times: