To want something desperately which is unavailable or difficult to obtain. For example(I'm not making this up.), my DSL went down Friday, and whatever killed it also broke my modem. No Internet at all. I had a major jonesing for E2, so I fired up my Sega Dreamcast and logged in to E2 using a game controller, pecking letters out one at a time. This must be what it is like to be unable to type. This sucks, but it is better than going without.

In England it basically means poor. A good example is Baron Hard Up in the pantomine Cinderella.