How to Use hardscrabble in a Sentence

hardscrabble

adjective

• He lived a hardscrabble life.
• Yu comes from a hardscrabble stretch of the North China plain, the region once known as Manchuria.
  — Emily Rauhala, Washington Post, 23 July 2017
• Johns follows the genesis of the piece and the hardscrabble careers of Richter and Mahr.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 24 Mar. 2021
• The self-reliance built from growing up in such a hardscrabble way stayed with her too.
  — Chloe Schama, Vogue, 4 May 2021
• But it’s not the only sign that change is afoot in this once rustic and hardscrabble region of the Lone Star State.
  — Henry Gass, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 Mar. 2022
• Selvaggi had grown up a hardscrabble Italian section of the Bronx, home to many of the wise guys.
  — Andrew Meier, Time, 14 Oct. 2022
• Lyosha, the gay rights activist, hails from the hardscrabble town of Solikamsk in the Ural Mountains, 1,000 miles to the east of the capital.
  — Christian Caryl, New Republic, 27 Oct. 2017
• Reid grew up in a hardscrabble mining town called Searchlight, a few miles from the Colorado River but a world away from the lights of the Strip.
  — Los Angeles Times, 30 Dec. 2021
• The toughest natives are from Sfakia, a hardscrabble mass of peaks cracked by deep gorges that lead to electric-blue bays.
  — Rachel Howard, Condé Nast Traveler, 26 Aug. 2021
• The swimming lessons aimed to give the new arrivals the skills to scrape by in the hardscrabble city of Messina, which is largely dependent on the sea.
  — Washington Post Staff, Washington Post, 20 Dec. 2017
• The new Tangled Shore patrol zone, where the campaign takes place, has a hardscrabble pirate vibe to it that's very cool.
  — Aaron Zimmerman, Ars Technica, 19 Sep. 2018
• Not all of the recipients live and work on hardscrabble farms.
  — Evan Halper, latimes.com, 6 June 2018
• Born in the hardscrabble northeast, da Silva rose through the ranks of the union in the country's industrial south.
  — Mauricio Savarese and Peter Prengaman, chicagotribune.com, 7 Apr. 2018
• That acclaim, plus a work ethic born of a hardscrabble childhood, earned him rides in Triple Crown races.
  — Mike Klingaman, baltimoresun.com, 10 May 2018
• John had been raised by a single mother in Kaduna, a hardscrabble city in Nigeria’s arid north.
  — Sean Williams, Harper's magazine, 19 Aug. 2019
• There are many issues at play in this piece set in hardscrabble Kennett, Missouri, once the home of singer Sheryl Crow, now a road to nowhere.
  — Ellen McGirt, Fortune, 5 Jan. 2018
• One comes from hardscrabble New Britain, the other from patrician Greenwich — fitting for the state with the widest wealth gap in the nation.
  — Neil Vigdor, courant.com, 24 Apr. 2018
• Shtewi grew up in Zeitoun, a hardscrabble neighborhood on the southern outskirts of Gaza City.
  — Fox News, 16 May 2018
• The clerkship was one more rung up from a hardscrabble beginning.
  — CBS News, 27 Sep. 2022
• Bill Clinton, the son of a single mother, came from a hardscrabble childhood.
  — Jeet Heer, The New Republic, 23 Apr. 2018
• But this eight-year, hardscrabble journey is no get-rich-quick story.
  — Star Tribune, 6 Dec. 2020
• Cannell hits rewind, bringing readers into the hardscrabble New York of the 1920s.
  — Marco Della Cava, USA TODAY, 2 Oct. 2020
• Olympic stars who often hail from hardscrabble backgrounds and were trained up from a young age in state sports academies.
  — Washington Post, 15 Feb. 2022
• Valeria is descended from people who once owned land—but the scars of war are fresh, and times are hardscrabble.
  — Toby Lichtig, WSJ, 27 Jan. 2023
• Hopkins grew up in a southern coastal town in Wales as the only child of Richard and Muriel, a couple who led a hardscrabble life running a bakery.
  — Washington Post, 25 Feb. 2021
• Her speeches have returned her to the hardscrabble neighborhoods of her youth.
  — Richard Wolf, USA TODAY, 8 Aug. 2019
• Now, Wal-Mart is rebranding itself as a company focused on the needs of its workers and the fate of small towns and hardscrabble cities.
  — Michael Corkery, The Seattle Times, 9 Aug. 2017
• As well, the depiction of the hardscrabble life in Anning’s hometown of Lyme Regis, the cramped quarters and raging sea, is true to life.
  — Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 11 Dec. 2020
• Milo is a savvy, hardscrabble Ethiopian Irish computer-science grad student loyal to a crew of rough friends.
  — Randy Boyagoda, The Atlantic, 16 Aug. 2024
• Vance discussed more than once being raised by his grandmother in hardscrabble poverty.
  — Susan Page, USA TODAY, 2 Oct. 2024

Last Updated: 23 Dec 2024