hand-to-mouth
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of hand-to-mouth
First recorded in 1500–10
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The challenges of hand-to-mouth were not at all theoretical.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
I have always lived hand-to-mouth, and live in a very small mountain town.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 21, 2025
"Obviously one of the issues of a hand-to-mouth scheme... it's very difficult for councils to take long-term decisions about running the schemes," he says.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2024
Named zeug after the German word for “stuff,” the utensil is a mediator for the intimacy of the hand-to-mouth gesture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2024
There is, however, something discreditable in the conduct of Government, and which shows the compromising, half-cunning, hand-to-mouth way in which they are compelled to scramble on.
From The Greville Memoirs A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Vol. III by Charles Greville
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
