Hard-headed means practical and refusing to be swayed by feeling. A hard-headed assessment.
It is meant as praise, which separates it entirely from hard-hearted. A hard-headed decision is one taken on the numbers when everybody wanted otherwise.
1adjectivehard-headedPractical and refusing to be swayed by feeling.
“The hard-headed review closed two projects everybody loved.”
hard-headed is a quality.
hardheaded comes from hard + headed. First appears c. mid-15th century in the writings of Osbern Bokenam.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA