From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbe hard put/pressed/pushed to do somethingbe hard put/pressed/pushed to do somethinginformalDIFFICULT to have difficulty doing something You’d be hard pressed to find anyone better for the job. → hard-pressed → hard
Examples from the Corpus
be hard put/pressed/pushed to do something• You will be hard pressed to choose a single main course because so many are mouth-watering.• Aunt Edie was in such a rage about it that she was hard put to contain herself.• Once an apology is given, the defendant will be hard put to contest liability later.• Governments will then be hard put to get it on to their national statute books by mid-1993.• I can assure you that any busybody would be hard put to it to prove maltreatment!• Leinster will be hard pushed to keep the score within the respectable margins of defeat set by their predecessors.• With his height and features, he was hard put to pass as a native.• The slave's side ... and even Miss Phoebe would be hard put to understand. 