Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

hand-to-mouth

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: 4.73 in modern English

Syllables: hand--to--mouth
IPA

20

Scrabble Score

11

Letters

5

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Involving immediate consumption (especially of food) with no provision for the future; having barely enough to survive, in poverty

Example Sentences

"She has been a widow these six or eight years, and has lived, I imagine, in rather a hand-to-mouth fashion."
"The Migrant Fleet has little economic base, operating in a state of perpetual "hand-to-mouth". While quarian ships include light manufacturing and assembly plants, they lack heavy industries such as refining and shipbuilding. The fleet has tankers for water purification and oxygen cracking, but the space-intensive nature of agriculture limits food production. A single disaster could destroy the fragile balance."

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *handuz Proto-West Germanic *handu Old English hand Middle English hond English hand English to Proto-Indo-European *men- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *mn̥-tó-s Proto-Germanic *munþaz Proto-West Germanic *munþ Old English mūþ Middle English mouth English mouth English hand-to-mouth From hand + to + mouth.

Phrases

eke out get by live paycheck to paycheck scrape by

Frequently Paired Words

eke out get by live paycheck to paycheck scrape by subsist threadbare

Questions

What does hand-to-mouth mean?: Involving immediate consumption (especially of food) with no provision for the future; having barely enough to survive, in poverty
Where does hand-to-mouth come from?: Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *handuz Proto-West Germanic *handu Old English hand Middle English hond English hand English to Proto-Indo-European *men- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *mn̥-tó-s Proto-Germanic *munþaz Proto-West Germanic *munþ Old English mūþ Middle English mouth English mouth English hand-to-mouth From hand + to + mouth.

How to pronounce hand-to-mouth

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