Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Earning a bare subsistence, as on the land; marginal.
  • noun Barren or marginal farmland.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to land that takes a lot of work in order to farm and even then is not very productive.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective barely satisfying a lower standard

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hard + scrabble

Support

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Examples

  • I didn't really use the word hardscrabble, though.

    Another Great Idea Chris Okum 2011

  • It strikes as exceedingly odd that urban folk from the U.S. existing on social security benefits or estate incomes want to go and live in hardscrabble villages where people are eking out a living day to day so they can romp around in the bucolic quaintness the locals would give their eye teeth to escape.

    Life on the South Side of the Lake 2009

  • It strikes as exceedingly odd that urban folk from the U.S. existing on social security benefits or estate incomes want to go and live in hardscrabble villages where people are eking out a living day to day so they can romp around in the bucolic quaintness the locals would give their eye teeth to escape.

    Life on the South Side of the Lake 2009

  • It strikes as exceedingly odd that urban folk from the U.S. existing on social security benefits or estate incomes want to go and live in hardscrabble villages where people are eking out a living day to day so they can romp around in the bucolic quaintness the locals would give their eye teeth to escape.

    Life on the South Side of the Lake 2009

  • It strikes as exceedingly odd that urban folk from the U.S. existing on social security benefits or estate incomes want to go and live in hardscrabble villages where people are eking out a living day to day so they can romp around in the bucolic quaintness the locals would give their eye teeth to escape.

    Life on the South Side of the Lake 2009

  • It strikes as exceedingly odd that urban folk from the U.S. existing on social security benefits or estate incomes want to go and live in hardscrabble villages where people are eking out a living day to day so they can romp around in the bucolic quaintness the locals would give their eye teeth to escape.

    Life on the South Side of the Lake 2009

  • It strikes as exceedingly odd that urban folk from the U.S. existing on social security benefits or estate incomes want to go and live in hardscrabble villages where people are eking out a living day to day so they can romp around in the bucolic quaintness the locals would give their eye teeth to escape.

    Life on the South Side of the Lake 2009

  • It strikes as exceedingly odd that urban folk from the U.S. existing on social security benefits or estate incomes want to go and live in hardscrabble villages where people are eking out a living day to day so they can romp around in the bucolic quaintness the locals would give their eye teeth to escape.

    Life on the South Side of the Lake 2009

  • It strikes as exceedingly odd that urban folk from the U.S. existing on social security benefits or estate incomes want to go and live in hardscrabble villages where people are eking out a living day to day so they can romp around in the bucolic quaintness the locals would give their eye teeth to escape.

    Life on the South Side of the Lake 2009

  • It strikes as exceedingly odd that urban folk from the U.S. existing on social security benefits or estate incomes want to go and live in hardscrabble villages where people are eking out a living day to day so they can romp around in the bucolic quaintness the locals would give their eye teeth to escape.

    Life on the South Side of the Lake 2009

Comments

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  • Earning a bare or meager living with great labor or difficulty. (From WordCraft)

    May 20, 2008

  • "On the hardscrabble lands of the American West, blood is spilled by the most innocent-looking of outlaws—the white-tailed prairie dog.

    These social rodents, native to Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana, ruthlessly bite and thrash Wyoming ground squirrels to death, leaving their bloody bodies to rot, a new study says.

    The killers' offspring then live longer, healthier lives—probably because their parents bumped off their competition for food.

    It’s the first time that a herbivorous mammal has been seen killing competitors without eating them, suggesting that a plant-based diet doesn’t preclude mammals from having a taste for bloodsport."
    -National Geographic, Michael Greshko, March 22, 2016, "Praire dogs are serial killers that murder their competition".

    April 17, 2016