From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhard-pressedˌhard-ˈpressed adjective PROBLEMhaving a lot of problems and not enough money or time The new exams will only add to the workload of already hard-pressed teachers. → be hard pressed to do something at hard2(5)
Examples from the Corpus
hard-pressed• For hard-pressed business people, courses will run during the weekend.• Pity, therefore, the hard-pressed driver of the Sauber-Mercedes.• They were hard-pressed even to get a hotel room.• The clinic provides help for hard-pressed families with young children.• Alternatively, a hard-pressed sector may seek to persuade its government to invoke anti-dumping measures.• Funding the pay rise will be more difficult and we fear that hard-pressed services will suffer further.• Finally, I think the tests will simply overburden an already hard-pressed system, and prove unworkable. 