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hand-to-mouth
[ hand-tuh-mouth ]
adjective
- offering or providing the barest livelihood, sustenance, or support; meager; precarious:
a hand-to-mouth existence.
hand-to-mouth
adjective
- with barely enough money or food to satisfy immediate needs
a hand-to-mouth existence
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Word History and Origins
Origin of hand-to-mouth1
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Example Sentences
He has a hand-to-mouth, nomad existence, ending in the inevitable frozen misery of the workhouse.
And many pioneers in whom the roving instinct was strong went on from year to year in this hand-to-mouth fashion.
There followed three similar years of a hand-to-mouth existence, the privations of which he endured in silence.
All around them the diggers were getting gold--not a mere hand-to-mouth living, but gold to spend, to squander.
I hate the brilliant, disorderly hand-to-mouth sort of Bohemia, Kenny, in which you seem to thrive.
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