as in desolate
producing inferior or only a small amount of vegetation
it was hard to eke out even a bare existence on the hardscrabble lands
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Recent Examples of hardscrabble
Once ekeing out a hardscrabble existence on the margins of the Short Creek FLDS offshoot community, Samuel Bateman eventually rushed to fill its center.
—
Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 8 Apr. 2026
With a hardscrabble happy ending.
—Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2026
Vérité-realistic portrait of hardscrabble immigrant life this film is not.
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 19 Mar. 2026
Doug Marker of Encinitas was a professional skateboarder between 1977 and 1980, during the sport’s hardscrabble days.
—Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for hardscrabble
Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 8 Apr. 2026
With a hardscrabble happy ending.
—Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2026
Vérité-realistic portrait of hardscrabble immigrant life this film is not.
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 19 Mar. 2026
Doug Marker of Encinitas was a professional skateboarder between 1977 and 1980, during the sport’s hardscrabble days.
—Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for hardscrabble
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hardscrabble
Adjective
-
The delicate pitter-patter of a drum’s cymbal is the only sound to break through the thick brick wall of the obscure performance venue, Sun Space, and reach the wide, desolate Sunland Boulevard.—
Christopher Buchanan,
Los Angeles Times,
18 May 2026
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Earlier this week, along a desolate stretch of road lined with oil refineries just north of the border between Shandong and Hebei provinces, an awareness of that spotlight seemed palpable.—
Simone McCarthy,
CNN Money,
12 May 2026
Adjective
-
Seeking to eliminate Berber forces in the barren mountains of northern Morocco, seven soldiers obediently follow their fanatical sergeant (Víctor Clavijo) into barbarous depths of depravity.—
Ed Meza,
Variety,
16 May 2026
-
Officials there have said that Iraqi army forces investigated reports of an unauthorized military force in the Nukhaib desert -- a barren area to the southwest of the cities of Karbala and Najaf -- in early March and came under fire while en route to the location.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
16 May 2026
Adjective
-
The play’s focus is resolutely on the impoverished rural family of women who fall under this ambitious bluesman’s influence in the rural Georgia of the 1930s, writes Chris Jones.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
13 May 2026
-
This model is much less appealing to the impoverished governments, which sometimes struggle to pay their own troops.—
Brady Knox,
The Washington Examiner,
10 May 2026
Adjective
-
In other words, the status quo of ed tech is bleak.—
Will Oremus,
The Atlantic,
16 May 2026
-
Like its gruesome predecessors, his latest full-length work features adorably designed anthropomorphic animals (and mushrooms) navigating bleak realities and confronting existentialist concerns.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Variety,
15 May 2026
Adjective
-
After wildfires hit Georgia in April 2026 fueled by a rain deficit, high winds and low humidity, — among other causes, per NASA — neighboring states got slammed with poor air quality alerts.—
Ryan Brennan
May 19,
Kansas City Star,
19 May 2026
-
However his attitude on health care and taxes places Newsom at odds with advocates for poor Californians who would be affected and their allies in the Legislature, many of whom want a tax increase.—
Dan Walters,
Mercury News,
19 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hardscrabble.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hardscrabble. Accessed 23 May. 2026.
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