hand-to-mouth
adjective
ˈhan(d)-tə-ˈmau̇th 
ˈhan-də-
: having or providing nothing to spare beyond basic necessities
a hand-to-mouth existence
hand to mouth
adverb
Synonyms
Examples of hand-to-mouth in a Sentence
survived on a hand-to-mouth income that came from any odd job that he could find
Recent Examples on the Web
The brand recommends using them in tandem with NRTs to satiate the hand-to-mouth habit of vaping.
—
Lina Abascal, Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2024
Teach your children how to avoid hand-to-mouth behaviors.
—Steffini Stalos, Verywell Health, 3 Oct. 2024
The motive can range from adolescent rebellion to adult thrill-seeking to hand-to-mouth poverty.
—Daniel De Visé, USA TODAY, 12 Aug. 2024
Inside the Billion-Dollar Effort to Clean Up the Seine
While many athletes live hand-to-mouth, the IOC enjoys an opulent existence.
—Jules Boykoff, TIME, 8 Aug. 2024
My dad lived very hand-to-mouth, and my mum used to buy a lot through catalogues and got herself into some bad debt.
—R29 Team, refinery29.com, 8 May 2024
The casting Ripley begins with Tom living hand-to-mouth in New York City through small cons until he’s hired to convince wayward shipbuilding heir Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) to leave his extended Italian holiday painting mediocre still lifes and return home to his frustrated family.
—Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 6 June 2024
Tom, a single man, lives a hand-to-mouth existence in New York with a male roommate who is, ahem, a window dresser.
—Mark Harris, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2024
Since then, the World Service has been financed on a hand-to-mouth basis through occasional installments of state funding.
—Simon J. Potter, Foreign Affairs, 31 July 2023
Lina Abascal, Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2024
Teach your children how to avoid hand-to-mouth behaviors.
—Steffini Stalos, Verywell Health, 3 Oct. 2024
The motive can range from adolescent rebellion to adult thrill-seeking to hand-to-mouth poverty.
—Daniel De Visé, USA TODAY, 12 Aug. 2024
Inside the Billion-Dollar Effort to Clean Up the Seine
While many athletes live hand-to-mouth, the IOC enjoys an opulent existence.
—Jules Boykoff, TIME, 8 Aug. 2024
My dad lived very hand-to-mouth, and my mum used to buy a lot through catalogues and got herself into some bad debt.
—R29 Team, refinery29.com, 8 May 2024
The casting Ripley begins with Tom living hand-to-mouth in New York City through small cons until he’s hired to convince wayward shipbuilding heir Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) to leave his extended Italian holiday painting mediocre still lifes and return home to his frustrated family.
—Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 6 June 2024
Tom, a single man, lives a hand-to-mouth existence in New York with a male roommate who is, ahem, a window dresser.
—Mark Harris, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2024
Since then, the World Service has been financed on a hand-to-mouth basis through occasional installments of state funding.
—Simon J. Potter, Foreign Affairs, 31 July 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hand-to-mouth.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near hand-to-mouth
Cite this Entry
“Hand-to-mouth.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hand-to-mouth. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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