Ah, if only we had something better to expect than this hand-to-mouth existence!
Yes, by my pen will I live; if it is a hand-to-mouth existence, it is at least free.
They are all hand-to-mouth working men: they live by the job when they can get any.
But this nomadic, hand-to-mouth life could not go on indefinitely.
hand-to-mouth is a bad principle when you have a growing child.'
There followed three similar years of a hand-to-mouth existence, the privations of which he endured in silence.
He must get some of the hated skits ready for the Sunday paper from which he drew a hand-to-mouth living.
The Cato Street conspirators gave Cruikshank hand-to-mouth work.
He has a hand-to-mouth, nomad existence, ending in the inevitable frozen misery of the workhouse.
The people are rooted to the soil, and the vast majority are living a hand-to-mouth life.