“Hand-to-mouth” describes a way of living or managing finances where a person or household has just enough money or resources to cover immediate, essential needs, with little or no surplus for savings or future planning. It implies a precarious and financially vulnerable situation.
Sample Sentences:
- The struggling artist lived a hand-to-mouth existence, relying on the sale of each painting to cover basic expenses.
- After losing his job, he found himself living hand-to-mouth, with each paycheck barely enough to cover rent and groceries.
- The family’s hand-to-mouth lifestyle meant they had to carefully budget every penny to make sure they could afford necessities.
- Many workers in low-wage jobs find themselves in a hand-to-mouth situation, struggling to save or plan for the future.
- The sudden increase in medical bills left them in a hand-to-mouth situation, constantly playing catch-up with their expenses.
- Despite working multiple jobs, she still lived hand-to-mouth, unable to break free from the cycle of financial instability.
- The economic recession pushed many families into a hand-to-mouth existence as they struggled to find stable employment.
- The hand-to-mouth nature of freelance work meant that income fluctuated from month to month, making it challenging to save.
- Living hand-to-mouth, they had to prioritize essential needs over discretionary expenses like entertainment or vacations.
- The documentary shed light on the lives of those living hand-to-mouth, highlighting the daily challenges they face to make ends meet.
- Synonyms:
- Barely making ends meet
- Living paycheck to paycheck
- Scrimping
- Surviving
- Making do
- Subsistence living
- Day-to-day existence
- Financially strained
- Impoverished
- Struggling
- Antonyms:
- Financially secure
- Prosperous
- Well-off
- Affluent
- Comfortable
- Related words:
- Poverty
- Scarcity
- Minimalism
- Frugality
- Subsistence
- Phrasal verbs:
- Live hand-to-mouth
- Exist hand-to-mouth
- Scrape by
- Make ends meet
- Just get by
- Idioms:
- Barely scrape through
- Living from hand to mouth
- On the brink of poverty
- Robbing Peter to pay Paul
- Living on the edge
In conclusion, “hand-to-mouth” describes a situation where individuals or households have just enough money to cover immediate needs, with little or no surplus for savings or future planning. It is synonymous with terms like “barely making ends meet,” “living paycheck to paycheck,” or “financially strained.” The antonyms for hand-to-mouth include words like “financially secure” or “prosperous.” Related words highlight concepts related to poverty, scarcity, and minimalism. Phrasal verbs and idioms provide additional ways to express the state of living hand-to-mouth or the struggles associated with it. Overall, this article provides a comprehensive explanation of the definition of “hand-to-mouth” along with its various synonyms, antonyms, related words, phrasal verbs, and idioms.
