as in unfortunate
having, prone to, or marked by bad luck
a hard-luck ball club that never could get the breaks it needed
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hard-luck
All the usual fun Indy stuff is here – Nazis, treasured artifacts – though the bantering chemistry between Ford's hard-luck hero and Sean Connery as his grumpy dad is off-the-hook spectacular.
—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
13 June 2026
For The Times) Boosted by a massive influx of cash from rental giant Airbnb, some of McKinney’s ads played up his hard-luck upbringing in one of New Jersey’s most violent cities.
—
Sonja Sharp,
Los Angeles Times,
5 June 2026
Both her audition and her callback had fallen flat, but the company must have figured that casting an amateur from hard-luck Butte as Lucetta would make good press.
—
Jonathan Franzen,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
Lauridsen, a junior right-hander, has been a hard-luck pitcher this season.
—
Steve Fryer,
Oc Register,
5 May 2026
There’s some dark subject matter, and some hard-luck people on the fringes.
—
New York Times,
28 Apr. 2026
For Coronado, the hard-luck loser was freshman Quinn Smock, who pitched six innings, allowed one unearned run on three hits and struck out seven.
—
Don Norcross,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
24 Apr. 2026
But nothing will change the chance that he was denied to celebrate with Team USA in the 2026 Olympics, or the parallels to one of the most famous hard-luck cases in sports history, Ralph Cox.
—
Mac Engel
april 21,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
21 Apr. 2026
Every small room sans closet in New York City requires a stand-alone alternative for surviving a hard-luck storage situation, and even ample hallways can benefit from a dignified wardrobe cabinet as a way to punctuate large spaces.
—
Julia Harrison,
Architectural Digest,
17 Mar. 2026
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
13 June 2026
For The Times) Boosted by a massive influx of cash from rental giant Airbnb, some of McKinney’s ads played up his hard-luck upbringing in one of New Jersey’s most violent cities.
—
Sonja Sharp,
Los Angeles Times,
5 June 2026
Both her audition and her callback had fallen flat, but the company must have figured that casting an amateur from hard-luck Butte as Lucetta would make good press.
—
Jonathan Franzen,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
Lauridsen, a junior right-hander, has been a hard-luck pitcher this season.
—
Steve Fryer,
Oc Register,
5 May 2026
There’s some dark subject matter, and some hard-luck people on the fringes.
—
New York Times,
28 Apr. 2026
For Coronado, the hard-luck loser was freshman Quinn Smock, who pitched six innings, allowed one unearned run on three hits and struck out seven.
—
Don Norcross,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
24 Apr. 2026
But nothing will change the chance that he was denied to celebrate with Team USA in the 2026 Olympics, or the parallels to one of the most famous hard-luck cases in sports history, Ralph Cox.
—
Mac Engel
april 21,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
21 Apr. 2026
Every small room sans closet in New York City requires a stand-alone alternative for surviving a hard-luck storage situation, and even ample hallways can benefit from a dignified wardrobe cabinet as a way to punctuate large spaces.
—
Julia Harrison,
Architectural Digest,
17 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hard-luck
Adjective
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As attendees were escorted out of the Great American State Fair on Sunday because of inclement weather, guests noticed an unfortunate typo displayed on a digital billboard at the National Mall.
-
They should be trained not to ask a bunch of questions about the medical condition, express doubt, comment that the timing is unfortunate or share private information with co-workers.
Adjective
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The decade was an unhappy panorama of inflation, gas shortages, military humiliation, and revelations of political corruption.
-
On Tuesday, Paul urged Americans who are unhappy with the justices’ ruling to support his proposal.
Adjective
-
The one in which his tiny team of negotiators surrendered to the radicals ruling that luckless nation.
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Any one of those locations could have allowed the heat of reentry to burn through the aluminum alloy walls of the spacecraft, killing any luckless crew that may have been inside, in much the kind of reentry breakup that doomed the shuttle Columbia and its seven-person crew in 2003.
Adjective
-
Rather than trying to get past security and plant malware on your system, phishing sites do their best to trick you, the hapless user, into giving away your credentials.
-
Japan scored twice in each half and kept a hapless Tunisia down to a shot apiece either side of the break.
Adjective
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The last time Rushing caught Ohtani, the pitcher took over pitch-calling after a disastrous second inning against the Twins last week.
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Since his disastrous tenure with the New York Yankees from 2016 to 2022, which included a suspension for violating MLB’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse policy, Chapman has worked to turn around his career.
Cite this Entry
“Hard-luck.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hard-luck. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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