hardscrabble
5
9.4
- adjective
- /ˈhɑrdˌskræbəl/
- Growing up in a hardscrabble neighborhood taught her the value of hard work and perseverance.
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Watch on YouTubeThe houses he were living in, these are sort of, you know, hardscrabble communities.
- The houses he were living in, these are sort of, you know, hardscrabble communities.
- And she said it was, it was a very hardscrabble existence for for a while, but then it started paying off.
- I was doing I was hardscrabble contract programming work, really struggling to kind of keep groceries and pay my rent and things.
- In some more hardscrabble situation, perhaps narcissists have children so they have a guarantee of narcissistic supply.
Examples
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Lockwood then recounts episodes from his "privileged" upbringing, while the considerably less appealing reality of a hardscrabble childhood is depicted.
Academic text (2003) -
Positives: From the hardscrabble streets of Flint, worked his way to the highest levels of hockey.
Blog text (21) -
And she said it was, it was a very hardscrabble existence for for a while, but then it started paying off.
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Truly, mine was a hardscrabble existence.
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This man worked him way up, worked his way up from hardscrabble roots using just his hands.
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His life of adventure takes him from this hardscrabble world to a comfortable home in the middle of sunny California.
Blog text (1) -
I was doing I was hardscrabble contract programming work, really struggling to kind of keep groceries and pay my rent and things.
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Bly spent decades in the hardscrabble vineyards of American poetry, and everyone knows it.
Academic text (2010) -
In The Liars' Club, Mary Karr masterfully evokes a family living on the edge in hardscrabble Texas.
Academic text (2011) -
In reality, Keselowski's path to major-league championship contention was a hardscrabble journey with more failings along the way than successes.
Blog text (17)
Synonyms
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1.1
Needing a lot of effort and often strict or severe
274
4.4
Hard to do and needing a lot of effort
7
5.3
A situation or task that is hard to do
How Poor
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Hardscrabble combines hard and scrabble, and the scrabble part once meant 'to scrape' or 'to search with your hands' for food or work. So hardscrabble describes a life or job where people must work very hard and 'scrape' by with very little reward.