When a game, a race, or an election is hard-fought, both sides want to win very badly and they keep using almost all their strength. Nobody is taking it easy. The score often stays close for a long time, and you can feel how much it costs them. We say this a lot about sport — a hard-fought match, a hard-fought win — and the news uses it for votes and other contests too. It usually sits in front of a noun. It does not mean the thing itself is hard like a rock. Though actually, a hard-fought win is not the same as a loud win that was never in doubt: the point is the struggle was real. It is also not the same as hard-won. Hard-fought pictures the fight against someone; hard-won pictures the prize you got after a lot of work.