Synonyms of hard up

hard up

adjective

as in poor

lacking money or material possessions

despite being undeniably hard up, they had too much pride to accept charity

Synonyms & Similar Words

• poor
• impoverished
• broke
• out of pocket
• out at elbows
• needful
• needy
• bankrupt
• impecunious
• deprived
• beggared
• necessitous
• dirt-poor
• destitute
• indigent
• famished
• down-and-out
• depressed
• pauperized
• beggarly
• penniless
• poverty-stricken
• threadbare
• penurious
• unaffluent
• down on one's luck
• disadvantaged
• bankrupted
• skint
• underprivileged
• ruined
• distressed
• reduced
• dispossessed
• possessionless
• bust
• short
• tapped out
• insolvent
• pinched
• poorish
• low
• hardscrabble
• straitened
• hand-to-mouth
• cash-strapped

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• rich
• wealthy
• affluent
• fat
• opulent
• well-to-do
• moneyed
• flush
• comfortable
• prosperous
• silk-stocking
• well-off
• well-heeled
• fat-cat
• deep-pocketed

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of hard up

The surge of federal immigration agents in Minnesota over the past few months left many people not only traumatized but financially hard up. — Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Money, 24 Feb. 2026

The game warden who conducted my background check confided that the state is so hard up for hunte-ed instructors that hunting experience is no longer a requirement for teaching the class. — The Editors, Outdoor Life, 30 Oct. 2025

Starring Jocelin Donahue as a college student hard up for cash who takes on a suspicious babysitting gig, The House of the Devil is a Ti West masterpiece. — Katie Rife, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Oct. 2025

This letter descended to Charles Austen and thence to his granddaughters, who, hard up, sold it in the 1920s, part of a larger cache of relics and manuscripts. — Literary Hub, 4 Aug. 2025