"hardscrabble" meaning in English

See hardscrabble in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈhɑɹdˌskɹæbəl/ [US] Audio: en-us-hardscrabble.ogg [US]
Rhymes: -æbəl Etymology: hard + scrabble Etymology templates: {{compound|en|hard|scrabble}} hard + scrabble Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} hardscrabble (not comparable)
  1. (Canada, US, of land) Requiring much work to farm, and ultimately not very productive. Tags: Canada, US, not-comparable
    Sense id: en-hardscrabble-en-adj-VduEeetg Categories (other): American English, Canadian English
  2. (Canada, US, by extension) Involving hard work and struggle. Tags: Canada, US, broadly, not-comparable Translations (involving hard work and struggle): vaivalloinen (Finnish), mühselig (German), entbehrungsreich (German)
    Sense id: en-hardscrabble-en-adj-mRJhdtLw Categories (other): American English, Canadian English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 16 84 Disambiguation of 'involving hard work and struggle': 2 98
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: hard-scrabble

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for hardscrabble meaning in English (3.5kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "hard",
        "3": "scrabble"
      },
      "expansion": "hard + scrabble",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "hard + scrabble",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "hardscrabble (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Canadian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "his hardscrabble peanut farm",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter V, in Flowing Gold",
          "text": "In the case of Allegheny Briskow, poverty, the drought, the grinding hardships of these hard-scrabble Texas counties, had dwarfed the intellect, the very soul of a splendid young animal.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 286",
          "text": "Villages in the more remote and hard-scrabble regions, including some mountain areas, are being abandoned, and nature is starting to creep back.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Requiring much work to farm, and ultimately not very productive."
      ],
      "id": "en-hardscrabble-en-adj-VduEeetg",
      "links": [
        [
          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "Requiring",
          "require"
        ],
        [
          "farm",
          "farm"
        ],
        [
          "ultimately",
          "ultimately"
        ],
        [
          "productive",
          "productive"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US, of land) Requiring much work to farm, and ultimately not very productive."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of land"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US",
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
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        {
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "16 84",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He leads a hardscrabble existence.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016 November 28, Mike Vorkunov, “Despite Flash of Rose’s Prime, Knicks Are Dazed by Westbrook and Thunder”, in The New York Times",
          "text": "While Rose tried to keep up with Westbrook, the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony struggled mightily, going 4 of 19 for 18 hardscrabble points.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Involving hard work and struggle."
      ],
      "id": "en-hardscrabble-en-adj-mRJhdtLw",
      "links": [
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          "Canada"
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          "US",
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        ],
        [
          "Involving",
          "involve"
        ],
        [
          "hard work",
          "hard work"
        ],
        [
          "struggle",
          "struggle"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US, by extension) Involving hard work and struggle."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US",
        "broadly",
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "involving hard work and struggle",
          "word": "vaivalloinen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "involving hard work and struggle",
          "word": "mühselig"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "involving hard work and struggle",
          "word": "entbehrungsreich"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈhɑɹdˌskɹæbəl/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æbəl"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-hardscrabble.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/71/En-us-hardscrabble.ogg/En-us-hardscrabble.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/En-us-hardscrabble.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
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      "text": "Audio (US)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "hard-scrabble"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hardscrabble"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English adjectives",
    "English compound terms",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English uncomparable adjectives",
    "Rhymes:English/æbəl"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "hard + scrabble",
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "hardscrabble (not comparable)",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "Canadian English",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "his hardscrabble peanut farm",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter V, in Flowing Gold",
          "text": "In the case of Allegheny Briskow, poverty, the drought, the grinding hardships of these hard-scrabble Texas counties, had dwarfed the intellect, the very soul of a splendid young animal.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 286",
          "text": "Villages in the more remote and hard-scrabble regions, including some mountain areas, are being abandoned, and nature is starting to creep back.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Requiring much work to farm, and ultimately not very productive."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "Requiring",
          "require"
        ],
        [
          "farm",
          "farm"
        ],
        [
          "ultimately",
          "ultimately"
        ],
        [
          "productive",
          "productive"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US, of land) Requiring much work to farm, and ultimately not very productive."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of land"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US",
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "Canadian English",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He leads a hardscrabble existence.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016 November 28, Mike Vorkunov, “Despite Flash of Rose’s Prime, Knicks Are Dazed by Westbrook and Thunder”, in The New York Times",
          "text": "While Rose tried to keep up with Westbrook, the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony struggled mightily, going 4 of 19 for 18 hardscrabble points.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Involving hard work and struggle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
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          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "Involving",
          "involve"
        ],
        [
          "hard work",
          "hard work"
        ],
        [
          "struggle",
          "struggle"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US, by extension) Involving hard work and struggle."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US",
        "broadly",
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈhɑɹdˌskɹæbəl/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æbəl"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-hardscrabble.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/71/En-us-hardscrabble.ogg/En-us-hardscrabble.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/En-us-hardscrabble.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "hard-scrabble"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "involving hard work and struggle",
      "word": "vaivalloinen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "involving hard work and struggle",
      "word": "mühselig"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "involving hard work and struggle",
      "word": "entbehrungsreich"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hardscrabble"
}

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.