hand-to-mouth

adjective

ˈhan(d)-tə-ˈmau̇th 

ˈhan-də-

: having or providing nothing to spare beyond basic necessities

a hand-to-mouth existence

hand to mouth adverb

Synonyms

• exiguous
• light
• meager
• meagre
• niggardly
• poor
• scant
• scanty
• scarce
• skimp
• skimpy
• slender
• slim
• spare
• sparing
• sparse
• stingy

Examples of hand-to-mouth in a Sentence

survived on a hand-to-mouth income that came from any odd job that he could find

Recent Examples on the Web

Both dropped out of college and essentially lived hand-to-mouth in order to pursue their musical dreams. —Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Jan. 2025

Based on the real fundamentals, the stock price would be in the low, single digits - just a fraction of its current price. Worse, the company is living hand-to-mouth because of the minuscule revenues, large negative earnings, and high cash outflow. —John S. Tobey, Forbes, 21 Dec. 2024

The brand recommends using them in tandem with NRTs to satiate the hand-to-mouth habit of vaping. —Lina Abascal, Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2024

Teach your children how to avoid hand-to-mouth behaviors. —Steffini Stalos, Verywell Health, 3 Oct. 2024

The motive can range from adolescent rebellion to adult thrill-seeking to hand-to-mouth poverty. —Daniel De Visé, USA TODAY, 12 Aug. 2024

Inside the Billion-Dollar Effort to Clean Up the Seine While many athletes live hand-to-mouth, the IOC enjoys an opulent existence. —Jules Boykoff, TIME, 8 Aug. 2024

My dad lived very hand-to-mouth, and my mum used to buy a lot through catalogues and got herself into some bad debt. —R29 Team, refinery29.com, 8 May 2024

The casting Ripley begins with Tom living hand-to-mouth in New York City through small cons until he’s hired to convince wayward shipbuilding heir Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) to leave his extended Italian holiday painting mediocre still lifes and return home to his frustrated family. —Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 6 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1748, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

hand-to-mouth

adjective

-tə-ˈmau̇th

: having or providing nothing to spare

a hand-to-mouth existence

hand to mouth adverb