hardship
[hahrd-ship]
- a condition that is difficult to endure; suffering; deprivation; oppression: a life of hardship.
- 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.
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Origin of hardship
Synonyms
See more synonyms for hardship on Thesaurus.com1. trouble, affliction, suffering, misfortune. 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.
Antonyms
1. ease.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hardship
Contemporary Examples
Omran has that deep, mature stare that only comes with years of hardship and struggle.
At other times, North Korea might want aid economic and food concessions, especially during periods of hardship and famine.
The youth are desperate because of the hardship of life here and the joblessness.
Conservatives oppose public spending to ease the hardship of poor women, cutting funds for food stamps and housing assistance.
This was it: An impending termination of the oppression and hardship that comprised so many of our Arab landscapes.
Historical Examples
If you've only just got it, there'll be no hardship to you or to them if you give it up now!
The Foolish LoversSt. John G. Ervine
If you can eat and sleep well, you can stand almost any hardship.
The ForestStewart Edward White
She loves him, and through poverty and hardship will share his fate.
He said he'd escaped from prison and, after a lot of difficulty and hardship, got back to England.
Changing WindsSt. John G. Ervine
Before these were completed she succumbed to the hardship of her life.
A Zola DictionaryJ. G. Patterson
hardship
- conditions of life difficult to endure
- something that causes suffering or privation
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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
Word Origin and History for hardship
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper