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hard-luck
adjective
: marked by, relating to, or experiencing bad luck or difficulty
another loss for the team's hard-luck pitcher
hard-luck stories
Synonyms
Examples of hard-luck in a Sentence
a hard-luck ball club that never could get the breaks it needed
Recent Examples on the Web
While the Chiefs have been consistently strong, with some remarkable good fortune this season and continued horseshoe following them, the Bills have suffered some severe hard-luck losses including to the Chiefs in the recent playoff years.
—Jay Ginsbach, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025
And after a hard-luck start to his career, Bateman getting in the end zone has become the ultimate good omen for the Ravens, who will face the Buffalo Bills Sunday night at Highmark Stadium in the AFC divisional round.
—Jeff Zrebiec, The Athletic, 16 Jan. 2025
Ole Miss finished a hard-luck 5-6 with its final five losses coming by one score.
—Scott Dochterman, The Athletic, 15 Jan. 2025
The redshirt freshman stayed away from a stomach bug that plagued the rest of the position group just weeks before the season, which proved to be an ominous sign of things to come for perhaps the most hard-luck unit in the College Football Playoff.
—Cameron Teague Robinson, The Athletic, 31 Dec. 2024
The aftermath: Fister, a hard-luck 12-30 for Seattle, went 32-20 for the Tigers with a 2.98 postseason ERA.
—Tyler Kepner, The Athletic, 26 July 2024
Ticketed, booted, towed — there are a million hard-luck parking enforcement stories in the naked city.
—Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2024
His latest album, 2023’s Twenty on High, is a revelatory collection of hard-luck stories and working-class resilience.
—Garret K. Woodward, Rolling Stone, 30 July 2024
The rise from an impoverished, dysfunctional upbringing in hard-luck Appalachia to Yale Law School and the U.S. Senate is truly the stuff of political myth-making.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 16 July 2024
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Word History
First Known Use
1890, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near hard-luck
Cite this Entry
“Hard-luck.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hard-luck. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.
Kids Definition
hard-luck
adjectiveˈhärd-ˌlək
: marked by, relating to, or experiencing bad luck
hard-luck stories
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