hand-to-mouth

American  

[hand-tuh-mouth] / ˈhænd təˈmaʊθ /

adjective

1. offering or providing the barest livelihood, sustenance, or support; meager; precarious.

   a hand-to-mouth existence.

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hand-to-mouth British  

adjective

1. with barely enough money or food to satisfy immediate needs

   a hand-to-mouth existence

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Etymology

Origin of hand-to-mouth

First recorded in 1500–10

Example Sentences

Many are migrant workers, living hand-to-mouth in cramped housing on the city's outskirts.

From BBC • Apr. 16, 2026

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

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

Thriftless people set up stakes, bushes, and such hand-to-mouth contrivances, and perhaps throw an old apron or a fragment of a table-cloth over them.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 95, September 1865 by Various