hard-knock

[hahrd-nok]

adjective

1. full of, familiar with, or arising from the experience of hardship and struggle.

   Life in this hard-knock town can be brutal.

   If I learned one thing from my hard-knock mother, it was that the show must always go on.

Example Sentences

It’s a morality tale about the hard-knock life of a performer that recalls the warm character studies of Ms. Swift’s earlier work.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

She has credited San Francisco’s “hard-knock politics” as shaping her ambitions and propelling her all the way to the White House as vice president, and now potentially president.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But when I really close-read Annie’s hard-knock life, I couldn’t help but zero in on how bizarre it is—and how bizarre it is that we still love her so much.

Read more on Slate

I suppose that’s why we continue to blithely share that tune with kids—Annie Jr. remains a popular production in children’s theaters, and though it’s abridged, the junior version features not just “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” but its reprise.

Read more on Slate

An unreliable but exploitable rumor about PJ and Josie’s hard-knock life in juvie leads our heroines to their Big Idea: starting a self-defense club for females, with noble intentions up front but a yen to get close to the gorgeous, popular girls as a bonus.

Read more on Seattle Times

Related Words

• adversity 
• grief 
• heartache 
• misery 
• misfortune 
• woe