hardscrabble

hard·scrab·ble

adjective \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

Rhymes with HARDSCRABBLE

bedabble