Definition of hardscrabble
1a : being or relating to a place of barren or barely arable soil a hardscrabble farm hardscrabble prairiesb : getting a meager living from poor soil a hardscrabble farmer
2 : marked by poverty a hardscrabble cotton town a hardscrabble childhood
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Examples of hardscrabble in a Sentence
He lived a hardscrabble life.
it was hard to eke out even a bare existence on the hardscrabble lands
Recent Examples of hardscrabble from the Web
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Peretz came to Israel from Morocco as a child and got his start in politics as mayor of Sderot, a hardscrabble southern town that’s a frequent target of Palestinian rocket attacks.
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But until now the story of Vance’s hardscrabble childhood in Appalachia and later success at Yale Law School and Silicon Valley had never made it to the top spot.
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Wonjo Tofu House is a modest little Korean restaurant in a rather hardscrabble strip mall on Fireweed Lane.
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Its butchness and conservatism were safely performative; the Hollywood cast was just playing at being hardscrabble, hard-drinkin’, narrow-minded Colorado ranchers.
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Kellyanne Conway is one of the few people in Trump’s circle who actually have something like a hardscrabble background.
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With athleticism and power, and four straight putts over the back nine that allowed him to pull away, Koepka capped off his hardscrabble journey around the world and found stardom at home as the U.S. Open champion.
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THEN: Around 1895, hardscrabble Russian immigrant Sam Zemurray got an idea.
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But the film's standout may be Squires, a previously unknown 28-year-old who in interviews has spoken about her own hardscrabble upbringing.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hardscrabble.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of hardscrabble
1879
HARDSCRABBLE Defined for English Language Learners
hardscrabble
playDefinition of hardscrabble for English Language Learners
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: having poor soil
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: having harsh and difficult conditions because of poverty
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