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
• Jackson’s men were mostly the hardscrabble sort who’d established farms along the western rivers—the flatboaters, in other words.
  — Boyce Upholt, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 June 2024
• That series has documented the revitalization of the hardscrabble town that accompanied the influx of capital for the storied team, which is one of the oldest football clubs in the world but had fallen on hard times.
  — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 9 July 2024

Last Updated: 17 Nov 2024