hardscrabble

hard·scrab·ble

adj \ˈhärd-ˌskra-bəl\

Definition of HARDSCRABBLE

1

a : being or relating to a place of barren or barely arable soil <a hardscrabble farm> <hardscrabble prairies> b : getting a meager living from poor soil <a hardscrabble farmer>

2

: marked by poverty <a hardscrabble cotton town> <a hardscrabble childhood>

Examples of HARDSCRABBLE

1. He lived a hardscrabble life.
2. <it was hard to eke out even a bare existence on the hardscrabble lands>

First Known Use of HARDSCRABBLE

1804

Related to HARDSCRABBLE

Synonyms: bony (also boney), dead, desolate, barren, impoverished, infertile, poor, stark, unfertile, unproductive, waste

Antonyms: fertile, fruitful, lush, luxuriant, productive, rich

Related Words: bleak, inhospitable, lifeless; uncultivable, untillable; bankrupted, consumed, debilitated, depleted, diminished, drained, dried-up, enfeebled, exhausted, expended, lessened, reduced, spent, used up; arid, desert, droughty, dry, rainless, sere (also sear), thirsty, waterless; baked, dehydrated, parched, sunbaked

Near Antonyms: arable, tillable; green, sylvan, verdant

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Rhymes with HARDSCRABBLE

bedabble