as in sparse
less plentiful than what is normal, necessary, or desirable
survived on a hand-to-mouth income that came from any odd job that he could find
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Recent Examples of hand-to-mouth
Drop Shots 💰 How match-fixers prey on tennis players living a hand-to-mouth existence lower down the sport’s rankings.
—
Charlie Eccleshare,
New York Times,
4 June 2026
Behavioral habits, including hand-to-mouth motion, inhalation and smoking rituals may also contribute to why quitting is difficult for many smokers.
—
Victoria Forster,
Forbes.com,
20 May 2026
In leading the study, Rogers tested 30 braiding hair products across human, plant-based, and synthetic categories, including brands people specifically asked him to evaluate, like Gyal and Rebundle, using a hand-to-mouth risk assessment.
—
Essence,
1 Apr. 2026
At the start of The Big Fake, a Netflix dramatization of one criminal’s involvement in the most tumultuous events in post-war Italy, Toni Chichiarelli (Pietro Castellitto) is a talented painter living hand-to-mouth as a portrait artist on the streets of Rome.
—
Rory Doherty,
Time,
26 Jan. 2026
The occupants of this Neolithic housing development were not hand-to-mouth hunter-gatherers but settled inhabitants of a fertile floodplain.
—
Literary Hub,
26 Jan. 2026
The film is not blind to how easily big dreams can be derailed, especially for the hand-to-mouth creative class in a Midwestern outpost.
—
Peter Tonguette,
The Washington Examiner,
9 Jan. 2026
While their musician patriarch is on the road, the eldest sibling has become the clear-eyed voice of discipline in the household who struggles with the strain of their hand-to-mouth life.
—
Rob Hubbard,
Twin Cities,
20 Dec. 2025
Still, most of Yopougon’s residents work informally and live hand-to-mouth.
—
Adrien Marotte,
Christian Science Monitor,
23 Oct. 2025
Charlie Eccleshare,
New York Times,
4 June 2026
Behavioral habits, including hand-to-mouth motion, inhalation and smoking rituals may also contribute to why quitting is difficult for many smokers.
—
Victoria Forster,
Forbes.com,
20 May 2026
In leading the study, Rogers tested 30 braiding hair products across human, plant-based, and synthetic categories, including brands people specifically asked him to evaluate, like Gyal and Rebundle, using a hand-to-mouth risk assessment.
—
Essence,
1 Apr. 2026
At the start of The Big Fake, a Netflix dramatization of one criminal’s involvement in the most tumultuous events in post-war Italy, Toni Chichiarelli (Pietro Castellitto) is a talented painter living hand-to-mouth as a portrait artist on the streets of Rome.
—
Rory Doherty,
Time,
26 Jan. 2026
The occupants of this Neolithic housing development were not hand-to-mouth hunter-gatherers but settled inhabitants of a fertile floodplain.
—
Literary Hub,
26 Jan. 2026
The film is not blind to how easily big dreams can be derailed, especially for the hand-to-mouth creative class in a Midwestern outpost.
—
Peter Tonguette,
The Washington Examiner,
9 Jan. 2026
While their musician patriarch is on the road, the eldest sibling has become the clear-eyed voice of discipline in the household who struggles with the strain of their hand-to-mouth life.
—
Rob Hubbard,
Twin Cities,
20 Dec. 2025
Still, most of Yopougon’s residents work informally and live hand-to-mouth.
—
Adrien Marotte,
Christian Science Monitor,
23 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hand-to-mouth
Adjective
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Already, reports of sparse crowds have marred the Freedom 250’s Great American State Fair on the National Mall, the Daily Beast said.
-
In North Platte, Nebraska, vegetation is much sparser with drier soils.
Adjective
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Rats are burrowing into aid parcels, forcing people to throw away scarce rice or flour supplies.
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Managing scarcity through digital modeling While deuterium is highly abundant and easily extracted from standard seawater, tritium is exceedingly scarce in nature.
Adjective
-
Because of that, these hands suffer from high production costs, poor durability against impacts, short operational lifespans, and there are no existing solutions that engineers can readily draw upon, Wang added.
-
The extreme heat can also affect people who are physically ill, especially those with heart disease or high blood pressure, or who take certain medications, such as for depression, insomnia, or poor circulation.
Cite this Entry
“Hand-to-mouth.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hand-to-mouth. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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