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hardscrabble.

Adjective
Setting
MEANING

Marked by hardship and poor returns from work, especially in farming or an economically strained community.

Use it for

a livelihood made from poor resources; marginal farming; a place whose residents struggle economically; hard labor without easy reward

Words that belong together

  • a hardscrabble farm
  • a hardscrabble existence
  • a hardscrabble town

On the page

A hardscrabble farm at the valley's edge had supported three generations without ever prospering.
She came from a hardscrabble town where every abandoned shop had a remembered owner.

Nearby words

struggling (livelihood)marginal (farmland)

Related words

hard-scrabble (spelling variant)strugglingmarginal
Word forms
Base
hardscrabble

Usage notes

Primary category: setting. Forms: Comparative more hardscrabble; superlative most hardscrabble where natural. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.

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