Learn English – What does it mean to be “hard done by” – a phrase I heard from a Canadian friend

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From the context of discussion, I took "hard done by" to mean "taken advantage unfair of" as in "He felt hard done by by former friends."

I had never heard the phrase before and have not heard it since. In fact I'm not sure my example sentence is properly constructed using two "by's".

Is it generally Canadian? A Canadian regionalism? Or is it more widely used by non-American English speakers around the world?

EDIT: Does the phrase include the word "by" and then require a second by for proper usage?

If the meaning is akin to "betrayed", then does the sentence "He felt betrayed by his friend" equate to

He felt hard done by his friend ("by" is not part of the phrase)
OR
He felt hard done by by his friend ("by" IS part of the phrase and so needs another by)

Another example, is it:

The situation made him feel hard done
OR
The situation made him feel hard done by

Best Answer

Meaning

The chiefly British idiom, feel hard done by or feel hard done-by means "to feel treated unjustly/unfairly". The meaning is not akin to a feeling of betrayal.

Usage

In the idiom, hard done by is an adjectival phrase. So, on further thought, I think the following construction would be grammatically incorrect,

He felt hard done by by former friends.

because it implies the subject complement and the auxiliary can be inserted thus:

He felt he was hard done by by former friends.

This usage is improper, as it treats hard done by as a participial element, which it is not. While some may parse this differently to argue for its correctness, one would be hard-pressed to find the idiom ever used in this way (followed by by). Rather, it is used by itself or in conjunction with an adverbial. I give several examples:

I felt a bit hard done by, going through that rough patch.
They certainly felt hard done by at having their privileges revoked.
Feeling hard done-by, mate?
He tried to cheer me up, but I couldn't help feeling hard done by.
She felt hard done by at having to do the chores while everyone else went to play.
Poor Cinderella must have felt so hard done by when her wicked step-mother denied her permission to go out.
No need to feel hard done by, bro. Every dog has its day.

In your final example, the correct choice would be:

The situation made him feel hard done by.

Prevalence

This idiom is not a Canadian regionalism or colloquialism. It is mainly used in the UK and other English-speaking countries of the Commonwealth, which includes Canada, Australia, India, etc. As such, it is more widely used by non-US speakers.

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