Idioms

hand-to-mouth

Also found in: Dictionary, Medical, Legal, Financial, Encyclopedia.

hand-to-mouth

Having, providing, or characterized by the bare minimum of money, food, or resources to survive, with little or nothing else to spare. I enjoy being a college student, but I'm so sick of this hand-to-mouth lifestyle. The company has already been a hand-to-mouth operation for the last two years. If we don't do something to improve sales soon, it will be forced to close down completely. Your grandparents led a hand-to-mouth existence during the Great Depression—that's why they always encourage you to save the money you make from your paper route.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

(from) hand to mouth

satisfying only your immediate needs because of lack of money for future plans and investments.
1960 Lynne Reid Banks The L-Shaped Room I'm twenty-eight years old and I'm still living from hand to mouth like a bloody tramp.
See also: hand, mouth, to
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
See also:
References in periodicals archive
"We are also continuing to work with retailers on developing ideal planograms that showcase new hand-to-mouth innovation by building prominent sections at eye level."
In an economy where demand exceeds supply, a "hand-to-mouth "sales cycle can be successful.
They said that most of the teachers are compelled to live hand-to-mouth.
CBCP - National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal chair and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz said that while lawmakers and government officials wear expensive attires, their constituents were living a hand-to-mouth existence.
"This season Rangers and Hearts have experienced serious financial uncertainty, with many other clubs surviving hand-to-mouth.
Although scientists don't know exactly how people accumulate high concentrations of PBDEs in their bodies, hand-to-mouth exposure is thought to play a significant role.
A group of struggling art students eke out a hand-to-mouth life, barely making enough to eat and pay the rent; when an innocent nineteen-year-old girl with exceptional talent joins them, a complex love triangle ensues!
This indicates that after the hand-to-mouth management of its foundation years, the NBA is developing into a mature organisation with a sound financial structure."
These exposures can result from hand-to-mouth behavior and more time spent on the floors of their homes and in contact with soils.
AN ENGINEER who spent 13 months in solitary confinement in a Saudi prison has revealed how he is living a hand-to-mouth existence on just pounds 50-a-week benefits.
He said: "I can assure you if you are on the bottom line you are living hand-to-mouth.
CPSC staff believes children are exposed to arsenic through hand-to-mouth contact when they touch the wood and place their hands in their mouths.
She has been called an archetypal bohemian, but her hand-to-mouth Greenwich Village existence during the Depression was not unusual, and she reacted to the situation as many did, by looking for socially responsible solutions--Marxism and communism among them--to the period's brutal and inequitable conditions.
Infants exploit their hand-to-mouth existence--whatever their hands grasp gets jammed into their mouths--to learn how to communicate with precisely timed words and gestures, according to other investigators.
Copyright © 2003-2025 Farlex, Inc Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.