as in unfortunate
having, prone to, or marked by bad luck
a hard-luck ball club that never could get the breaks it needed
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hard-luck
All the usual fun Indy stuff is here – Nazis, treasured artifacts – though the bantering chemistry between Ford's hard-luck hero and Sean Connery as his grumpy dad is off-the-hook spectacular.
—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
13 June 2026
Both her audition and her callback had fallen flat, but the company must have figured that casting an amateur from hard-luck Butte as Lucetta would make good press.
—
Jonathan Franzen,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
The Oilers went back to Connor Ingram in goal after a hard-luck overtime loss for Tristan Jarry in Game 4.
—
Andrew Knoll,
Oc Register,
29 Apr. 2026
There’s some dark subject matter, and some hard-luck people on the fringes.
—
New York Times,
28 Apr. 2026
For Coronado, the hard-luck loser was freshman Quinn Smock, who pitched six innings, allowed one unearned run on three hits and struck out seven.
—
Don Norcross,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
24 Apr. 2026
But nothing will change the chance that he was denied to celebrate with Team USA in the 2026 Olympics, or the parallels to one of the most famous hard-luck cases in sports history, Ralph Cox.
—
Mac Engel
april 21,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
21 Apr. 2026
Every small room sans closet in New York City requires a stand-alone alternative for surviving a hard-luck storage situation, and even ample hallways can benefit from a dignified wardrobe cabinet as a way to punctuate large spaces.
—
Julia Harrison,
Architectural Digest,
17 Mar. 2026
Not after just two injury-riddled, hard-luck seasons.
—
Los Angeles Times,
9 Mar. 2026
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
13 June 2026
Both her audition and her callback had fallen flat, but the company must have figured that casting an amateur from hard-luck Butte as Lucetta would make good press.
—
Jonathan Franzen,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
The Oilers went back to Connor Ingram in goal after a hard-luck overtime loss for Tristan Jarry in Game 4.
—
Andrew Knoll,
Oc Register,
29 Apr. 2026
There’s some dark subject matter, and some hard-luck people on the fringes.
—
New York Times,
28 Apr. 2026
For Coronado, the hard-luck loser was freshman Quinn Smock, who pitched six innings, allowed one unearned run on three hits and struck out seven.
—
Don Norcross,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
24 Apr. 2026
But nothing will change the chance that he was denied to celebrate with Team USA in the 2026 Olympics, or the parallels to one of the most famous hard-luck cases in sports history, Ralph Cox.
—
Mac Engel
april 21,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
21 Apr. 2026
Every small room sans closet in New York City requires a stand-alone alternative for surviving a hard-luck storage situation, and even ample hallways can benefit from a dignified wardrobe cabinet as a way to punctuate large spaces.
—
Julia Harrison,
Architectural Digest,
17 Mar. 2026
Not after just two injury-riddled, hard-luck seasons.
—
Los Angeles Times,
9 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hard-luck
Adjective
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The injury was an unfortunate occurrence in his World Cup debut and could affect Sweden’s chances going forward.
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The mini-slump in Eugene coincides with the aforementioned downturn in Spokane to create an unfortunate stretch for college basketball in the Pacific Northwest.
Adjective
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Isdin Melatonik If traditional retinoids have left your sensitive skin unhappy, Isdin's Melatonik Recovery Night Serum offers a gentler approach with bakuchiol.
-
Brown and the Celtics have both since denied speculation that the 29-year-old second-team All-NBA selection was unhappy with his role in Boston.
Adjective
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The one in which his tiny team of negotiators surrendered to the radicals ruling that luckless nation.
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Any one of those locations could have allowed the heat of reentry to burn through the aluminum alloy walls of the spacecraft, killing any luckless crew that may have been inside, in much the kind of reentry breakup that doomed the shuttle Columbia and its seven-person crew in 2003.
Adjective
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Rather than trying to get past security and plant malware on your system, phishing sites do their best to trick you, the hapless user, into giving away your credentials.
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Japan scored twice in each half and kept a hapless Tunisia down to a shot apiece either side of the break.
Adjective
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Labour has teetered on the edge of one for weeks after those disastrous local election results, and only Burnham’s inability to run before now seems to have delayed one.
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On Monday night, David Remnick interviewed Hillary Rodham Clinton for a live taping of The New Yorker Radio Hour, where the former First Lady spoke plainly about Joe Biden and the disastrous 2024 election.
Cite this Entry
“Hard-luck.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hard-luck. Accessed 28 Jun. 2026.
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