0 someone, especially in politics, who is very severe, for example in refusing to allow something or to reduce or change their demands in any way:
Reagan was much more than a conventional conservative hard-liner.
The deportations are drawing cheers from immigration hardliners.
This compromise will not please Brexit hardliners.
I am, if anything, a hard-liner, anti-criminal, and victim friendly.
Some say that he is a hard-liner, while others say that he is a soft-liner.
I can claim, therefore, not to be a hard-liner on either side.
Some conditions were curtailed, and the liberal approach to various employment matters that workers had enjoyed was replaced by a hard-liner stance.