"hand-to-mouth" meaning in English

See hand-to-mouth in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: en-au-hand-to-mouth.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: hand + to + mouth Etymology templates: {{af|en|hand|to|mouth}} hand + to + mouth Head templates: {{head|en|adjective|head=hand-to-mouth}} hand-to-mouth
  1. Involving immediate consumption (especially of food) with no provision for the future; having barely enough to survive, in poverty Related terms: live paycheck to paycheck, subsist, scrape by, eke out Translations (Translations): z ruky do huby (Czech), van dag tot dag (Dutch), peost suhu elada (Estonian), (elää) kädestä suuhun (Finnish), au jour le jour (French), von der Hand in den Mund (leben) (German), ón lámh go dtí an béal (Irish), (dzīvot) no rokas mutē (english: (live) from hand to mouth) (Latvian), pivst sūzõ jellõ (english: live from palm to mouth) (Livonian), z dnia na dzień (Polish), a salto de mata (Spanish)

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for hand-to-mouth meaning in English (3.9kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "hand",
        "3": "to",
        "4": "mouth"
      },
      "expansion": "hand + to + mouth",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "hand + to + mouth",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "adjective",
        "head": "hand-to-mouth"
      },
      "expansion": "hand-to-mouth",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Finnish links with redundant wikilinks",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant wikilinks",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "German links with redundant wikilinks",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant wikilinks",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1879, Henry James, Eugene Pickering",
          "text": "She has been a widow these six or eight years, and has lived, I imagine, in rather a hand-to-mouth fashion.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Quarians: Economy Codex entry",
          "text": "The Migrant Fleet has little economic base, operating in a state of perpetual \"hand-to-mouth\". While quarian ships include light manufacturing and assembly plants, they lack heavy industries such as refining and shipbuilding. The fleet has tankers for water purification and oxygen cracking, but the space-intensive nature of agriculture limits food production. A single disaster could destroy the fragile balance.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Involving immediate consumption (especially of food) with no provision for the future; having barely enough to survive, in poverty"
      ],
      "id": "en-hand-to-mouth-en-adj-4XThEIV1",
      "links": [
        [
          "immediate",
          "immediate"
        ],
        [
          "consumption",
          "consumption"
        ],
        [
          "future",
          "future"
        ],
        [
          "barely",
          "barely"
        ],
        [
          "enough",
          "enough"
        ],
        [
          "survive",
          "survive"
        ],
        [
          "poverty",
          "poverty"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "live paycheck to paycheck"
        },
        {
          "word": "subsist"
        },
        {
          "word": "scrape by"
        },
        {
          "word": "eke out"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "z ruky do huby"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "van dag tot dag"
        },
        {
          "code": "et",
          "lang": "Estonian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "peost suhu elada"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "(elää) kädestä suuhun"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "au jour le jour"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "von der Hand in den Mund (leben)"
        },
        {
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "ón lámh go dtí an béal"
        },
        {
          "code": "lv",
          "english": "(live) from hand to mouth",
          "lang": "Latvian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "(dzīvot) no rokas mutē"
        },
        {
          "code": "liv",
          "english": "live from palm to mouth",
          "lang": "Livonian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "pivst sūzõ jellõ"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "z dnia na dzień"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "a salto de mata"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-hand-to-mouth.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/39/En-au-hand-to-mouth.ogg/En-au-hand-to-mouth.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/En-au-hand-to-mouth.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hand-to-mouth"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "hand",
        "3": "to",
        "4": "mouth"
      },
      "expansion": "hand + to + mouth",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "hand + to + mouth",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "adjective",
        "head": "hand-to-mouth"
      },
      "expansion": "hand-to-mouth",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "live paycheck to paycheck"
    },
    {
      "word": "subsist"
    },
    {
      "word": "scrape by"
    },
    {
      "word": "eke out"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English compound terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Finnish links with redundant wikilinks",
        "German links with redundant wikilinks",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1879, Henry James, Eugene Pickering",
          "text": "She has been a widow these six or eight years, and has lived, I imagine, in rather a hand-to-mouth fashion.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Quarians: Economy Codex entry",
          "text": "The Migrant Fleet has little economic base, operating in a state of perpetual \"hand-to-mouth\". While quarian ships include light manufacturing and assembly plants, they lack heavy industries such as refining and shipbuilding. The fleet has tankers for water purification and oxygen cracking, but the space-intensive nature of agriculture limits food production. A single disaster could destroy the fragile balance.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Involving immediate consumption (especially of food) with no provision for the future; having barely enough to survive, in poverty"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "immediate",
          "immediate"
        ],
        [
          "consumption",
          "consumption"
        ],
        [
          "future",
          "future"
        ],
        [
          "barely",
          "barely"
        ],
        [
          "enough",
          "enough"
        ],
        [
          "survive",
          "survive"
        ],
        [
          "poverty",
          "poverty"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-hand-to-mouth.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/39/En-au-hand-to-mouth.ogg/En-au-hand-to-mouth.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/En-au-hand-to-mouth.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "z ruky do huby"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "van dag tot dag"
    },
    {
      "code": "et",
      "lang": "Estonian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "peost suhu elada"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "(elää) kädestä suuhun"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "au jour le jour"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "von der Hand in den Mund (leben)"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "ón lámh go dtí an béal"
    },
    {
      "code": "lv",
      "english": "(live) from hand to mouth",
      "lang": "Latvian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "(dzīvot) no rokas mutē"
    },
    {
      "code": "liv",
      "english": "live from palm to mouth",
      "lang": "Livonian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "pivst sūzõ jellõ"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "z dnia na dzień"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "a salto de mata"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hand-to-mouth"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.