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

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

But figuring out how to finance college so that neither parent nor child are left financially hard up? —Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Money, 18 May 2025

Obviously someone who loses their job and is really hard up for cash will give serious thought to canceling or pausing subscriptions. —Josef Adalian, Vulture, 10 Apr. 2025

Over the last two seasons, he’s figured out how to throw the ball hard up to left-handed hitters for weak contact and to their back foot for swing-and-miss. —Tim Britton, The Athletic, 13 Aug. 2024