Definition of "hard-drawn" [hard-drawn]

• Drawn when cold, as wire through a disk.

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "And then sounded the clangor of strife and the hard-drawn panting of combat."
• "That fearful battle was fought in silence save for the hissing of hard-drawn breath."
• "Through a blur of stinging sweat, Strongfist could see the bodies of his companions strewn along the riverside like flotsam; and each hard-drawn breath sucked the stench of the slaughterhouse into his lungs."