Chapter Hankey Pankey to Hard as the Nether Millstone of H by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Hard as Nails Stern, hard-hearted, unsympathetic; able to stand hard blows like nails. Religious bigotry, straitlacedness, rigid puritanical pharisaism, make men and women "hard as nails."

"I know I'm as hard as nails already; I don't want to get more so." - Edna Lyall: Donovan. chap. xxiii.

Hard as a Stone "hard as iron," "hard as brawn," "hard as ice," "hard as adamant," etc. (See Similes.)

Hard as the Nether Millstone Unfeeling, obdurate. The lower or "nether" of the two millstones is firmly fixed and very hard; the upper stone revolves round it on a shaft, and the corn, running down a tube inserted in the upper stone, is ground by the motion of the upper stone round the lower one. Of course, the upper wheel is made to revolve by some power acting on it, as wind, water, or some other mechanical force.