hardship

[ hahrd-ship ]
See synonyms for: hardshiphardships on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a condition that is difficult to endure; suffering; deprivation; oppression: a life of hardship.

  2. an instance or cause of this; something hard to bear, as a deprivation, lack of comfort, or constant toil or danger: They faced bravely the many hardships of frontier life.

Origin of hardship

1
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English; hard + -ship

synonym study For hardship

1. Hardship, privation, austerity refer to a condition hard to endure. Hardship applies to a circumstance in which excessive and painful effort of some kind is required, as enduring acute discomfort from cold, or battling over rough terrain. Privation has particular reference to lack of food, clothing, and other necessities or comforts. Austerity not only includes the ideas of privation and hardship but also implies deliberate control of emotional reactions to these.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use hardship in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for hardship

hardship

/ (ˈhɑːdʃɪp) /


noun
  1. conditions of life difficult to endure

  2. something that causes suffering or privation

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012