hardscrabble
adjective
hard·scrab·ble
ˈhärd-ˌskra-bəl 
1
a
: being or relating to a place of barren or barely arable soil
a hardscrabble farm
hardscrabble prairies
b
: getting a meager living from poor soil
a hardscrabble farmer
2
: marked by poverty
a hardscrabble cotton town
a hardscrabble childhood
Examples of hardscrabble in a Sentence
He lived a hardscrabble life.
it was hard to eke out even a bare existence on the hardscrabble lands
Recent Examples on the Web
What started as an impromptu group of professional side musicians in Nashville jamming weekly at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in nearby Madison has morphed into a hardscrabble touring act of its own that made a headlining appearance at the Ryman Auditorium earlier this month.
—
Garret K. Woodward, Rolling Stone, 28 July 2025
The protagonist, a woman named Dawn Bishop, is from a wealthy white family: their money hasn't come from colonial days, but from their hardscrabble beginnings running a company that makes and exports tropical fruit juices.
—Claire Adam, People.com, 28 July 2025
On the one hand, as Tevye is fond of saying, the story unfolds in a hardscrabble shtetl in the Ukrainian plains in the months leading up to the Russian Empire’s abortive 1905 revolution.
—David Lyman, The Enquirer, 25 July 2025
Born in 1805 to a hardscrabble Vermont family and raised amid the fervor of the Second Great Awakening, Joseph Smith claimed at age 14 to have seen God the Father and Jesus Christ in a grove of trees.
—Mary Katharine Ham, National Review, 24 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for hardscrabble
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Garret K. Woodward, Rolling Stone, 28 July 2025
The protagonist, a woman named Dawn Bishop, is from a wealthy white family: their money hasn't come from colonial days, but from their hardscrabble beginnings running a company that makes and exports tropical fruit juices.
—Claire Adam, People.com, 28 July 2025
On the one hand, as Tevye is fond of saying, the story unfolds in a hardscrabble shtetl in the Ukrainian plains in the months leading up to the Russian Empire’s abortive 1905 revolution.
—David Lyman, The Enquirer, 25 July 2025
Born in 1805 to a hardscrabble Vermont family and raised amid the fervor of the Second Great Awakening, Joseph Smith claimed at age 14 to have seen God the Father and Jesus Christ in a grove of trees.
—Mary Katharine Ham, National Review, 24 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for hardscrabble
Cite this Entry
“Hardscrabble.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hardscrabble. Accessed 2 Aug. 2025.
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