hardship Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a state of misfortune or affliction
    hard knocks; adversity.
    • debt-ridden farmers struggling with adversity
    • a life of hardship
  2. noun something hard to endure
    rigourousness; severeness; rigor; rigorousness; rigour; asperity; grimness; severity.
    • the asperity of northern winters
  3. noun something that causes or entails suffering
    • I cannot think it a hardship that more indulgence is allowed to men than to women"- James Boswell
    • the many hardships of frontier life

WordNet

Hard"ship noun
Definitions
  1. That which is hard to hear, as toil, privation, injury, injustice, etc. Swift.

Webster 1913