hand-to-mouth

[ hand-tuh-mouth ]

/ ˈhænd təˈmaʊθ /

offering or providing the barest livelihood, sustenance, or support; meager; precarious: a hand-to-mouth existence.

Origin of hand-to-mouth

First recorded in 1500–10

There followed three similar years of a hand-to-mouth existence, the privations of which he endured in silence.

David Dunne |Belle Kanaris Maniates
You see, it is very difficult to get the hand-to-mouth class interested in anything except those two organs.

The Ivory Gate, a new edition |Walter Besant
Hand-to-mouth legislation has always been the characteristic of our rule in South Africa.

Cetywayo and his White Neighbours |H. Rider Haggard
But we humans do not have to be content with this hand-to-mouth way of thinking and feeling.

By the Christmas Fire |Samuel McChord Crothers

During all this hand-to-mouth existence I was calling on theatrical managers.

The Secrets of a Savoyard |Henry A. Lytton

hand-to-mouth

with barely enough money or food to satisfy immediate needs a hand-to-mouth existence