0 to expect a lot in exchange for what you pay or do --
1 to strongly defend a position that is very much to your advantage when reaching an agreement: --
They generally came to sell, not to buy, and most of them knew how to drive a hard bargain.
He was highly respectable, but could drive a hard bargain with a poor author, as well as any of his fraternity.
About noon, he was talking to a farmer in his quiet back room, endeavouring to drive a hard bargain with the man, whom a bad season had already rendered poor.