as in desolate
producing inferior or only a small amount of vegetation
it was hard to eke out even a bare existence on the hardscrabble lands
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Recent Examples of hardscrabble
Luke Richardson tried in vain to coax that tenacity out of him in the NHL, often pairing him with hardscrabble players to encourage a tougher mindset.
—
Mark Lazerus, The Athletic, 18 Jan. 2025
The film’s setting also helps transcend time, evoking the smallness of its hardscrabble world, filled with the details of the period.
—Will Tizard, Variety, 7 July 2024
The combination of James Cagney (Rocky Sullivan), Humphrey Bogart (James Frazier) and director Michael Curtiz makes this Depression-era crime drama one that reinforces the idea that America was made in the streets of immigrant, segregated, hardscrabble neighborhoods.
—Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Dec. 2024
This hardscrabble bunch of journalists and technicians is right at the coalface of the struggle against censorship.
—Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline, 2 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for hardscrabble
Mark Lazerus, The Athletic, 18 Jan. 2025
The film’s setting also helps transcend time, evoking the smallness of its hardscrabble world, filled with the details of the period.
—Will Tizard, Variety, 7 July 2024
The combination of James Cagney (Rocky Sullivan), Humphrey Bogart (James Frazier) and director Michael Curtiz makes this Depression-era crime drama one that reinforces the idea that America was made in the streets of immigrant, segregated, hardscrabble neighborhoods.
—Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Dec. 2024
This hardscrabble bunch of journalists and technicians is right at the coalface of the struggle against censorship.
—Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline, 2 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for hardscrabble
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hardscrabble
Adjective
-
This powerful film tells of the friendship between a young man and a peasant farmer who has devoted his life to planting trees throughout his desolate homeland.—
Jeremy Fassler,
Vulture,
2 Mar. 2025
-
Orphaned at 3 years old and robbed of her fortune, she’s dragged aboard a ship sailing for New France by her guardian, only to be abandoned on a desolate island.—
Staff,
The Christian Science Monitor,
20 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Three generations of the Kim family have created a politically repressed and economically impoverished state that is nonetheless a pivotal actor on the global stage.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
25 Feb. 2025
-
Now with all these things vanished, along with the bookstores and repertory cinemas, the city seems impoverished and disfigured.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
24 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Such descriptions enliven the book, and capture Shubin’s reverence for both the beauty and the mysteries hidden in the cold, barren tundra.—
The New Yorker,
The New Yorker,
3 Mar. 2025
-
For most of its barren interior, life is an afterthought—nature’s great white void, frozen in time.—
Scott Travers,
Forbes,
2 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
The picture looks bleak in the U.S. and in France the company is entering receivership.—
Andreas Wiseman,
Deadline,
24 Feb. 2025
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The tiny graves at one end of the orphanage compound are a bleak reminder of what a future without USAID might look like for the children.—
Nicholas Komu,
Los Angeles Times,
21 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
And another research team, using data from 2015 to 2022, observed in an article available in Energy Research and Social Science that poor income distribution correlates with social unrest when fossil fuel subsidies are removed.—
Aldo Flores-Quiroga,
Forbes,
1 Mar. 2025
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The board meeting featured a slideshow that indicated pre-sales of NASCAR Heat 5 were very poor, 27% behind NASCAR Heat 4 (the previous game in the series) at the same time in development.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
28 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Hardscrabble.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hardscrabble. Accessed 10 Mar. 2025.
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