Hard-bitten means toughened and unsentimental from hard experience. A hard-bitten reporter.
It is half admiring, since the toughness was earned rather than chosen. A hard-bitten person is not cruel, only past being surprised.
1adjectivehard-bittenToughened and unsentimental from hard experience.
“Even the hard-bitten ones on the desk went quiet at that.”
hard-bitten is a quality.
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire