Meaning
Strictly fixed, definite and not open to alteration, evasion or flexible interpretation. Most common before rule, distinction, deadline or boundary. It frequently occurs in a negative construction to say that discretion remains possible. Regional use: English; now international English.
Origin
Hard and fast is traditionally explained through nautical language for a ship held firmly aground, with hard describing the ground and fast meaning fixed. Merriam-Webster dates the modern fixed or inflexible sense to 1822. A surviving specialist definition in Admiral W. H. Smyth's Sailor's Word-Book is from 1867, later than that figurative evidence. The maritime derivation is therefore plausible and conventional but not proved by a printed nautical citation earlier than the figurative idiom, so it should not be presented as certain.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- A hard-and-fast rule
Usage Examples
- There is no hard-and-fast rule for dividing the grant between the two projects.
- The thirty-day target is guidance rather than a hard-and-fast deadline.
- Editors apply a few hard-and-fast principles but judge most cases individually.