An incorrigible.
1842. The Hardest Kind of a Case. A big fellow was brought before Alderman B. for abusing, beating, kicking, knocking down, and jumping upon his wife.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, May 21.
1846. Some stolen chickens, in dispute between one Lot Corson and a “hard case” called Emanuel Allen.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., p. 38 (Phila.).
1846. Cabe was as hard “a case” as you would meet on a fourth of July in Texas, always alive for fun and sport of any and every description, and a strong disbeliever in Millerism.—Id., p. 60.
1848. “What a hard case, he is,” meaning a reckless scapegrace, mauvais sujet.—Bartlett.
1848. I am aware that there have been some very hard cases in Congress. I believe there was one member convicted of forgery and sent to the penitentiary. Was it not so?—Mr. Root of Ohio, House of Repr., April 21: Cong. Globe, p. 663.
1851. Parson S——, a rather eccentric character, was called upon to ‘preach the funeral’ of a hard case named Rann.—Knick. Mag., xxxviii. 559 (Nov.).
1854. The fellow had the reputation of being the ‘hardest case about town.’—Id., xliv. 165 (Aug.).
1856. There was ‘once upon a time’ a rather ‘hard case’ in a town which shall be nameless, in the State of Georgia, who had been ‘under discipline’ in the Methodist Church, but into whose fold he had again applied for admission.—Id., xlviii. 104 (July).
1857. I may be rather a hard case … but the harder a thing is, the more likely scratches are to stay on it.—Id., xlix. 42 (Jan.).
1857. The boarders allude to him as a “hard” boy, generally.—T. B. Gunn, ‘New York Boarding-houses,’ p. 207.
