Hardscrabble

/ˈhɑɹdˌskɹæbəl/ · adjective

Meaning

(Canada, US, of land) Requiring much work to farm, and ultimately not very productive..

Definitions by Sense

1. (Canada, US, of land) Requiring much work to farm, and ultimately not very productive.
2. (Canada, US, by extension) Involving hard work and struggle.

Example Sentences

his hardscrabble peanut farm

In the case of Allegheny Briskow, poverty, the drought, the grinding hardships of these hard-scrabble Texas counties, had dwarfed the intellect, the very soul of a splendid young animal.

Villages in the more remote and hard-scrabble regions, including some mountain areas, are being abandoned, and nature is starting to creep back.

He leads a hardscrabble existence.

Being the savage’s bowsman, that is, the person who pulled the bow-oar in his boat (the second one from forward), it was my cheerful duty to attend upon him while taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead whale’s back.

While Rose tried to keep up with Westbrook, the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony struggled mightily, going 4 of 19 for 18 hardscrabble points.

Grace and her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) lost their mother during birth, and their alcoholic father during their hardscrabble childhood.

Synonyms for hardscrabble

Antonyms for hardscrabble

Related Words

Word Forms

• hard-scrabble

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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