hand to mouth, exist/live from
live hand to mouth
To be extremely poor, having only enough money to provide food and shelter each month. I had to live hand to mouth during most of college, since I could only get part-time jobs that paid minimum wage.
See also: hand, live, mouth
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
live (from) ˌhand to ˈmouth
spend all the money you earn on basic needs such as food, without being able to save any money: There’s no way we can even think about travelling to Europe this year, as we are literally living from hand to mouth. ▶ ˌhand-to-ˈmouth adj.: a hand-to-mouth existenceSee also: hand, live, mouth
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
hand to mouth, exist/live from
Living with a minimum of sustenance or support. This term, which dates from about 1500, implies that one has so little to live on that whatever comes to hand is consumed. “I subsist, as the poor are vulgarly said to do, from hand to mouth,” wrote the poet William Cowper (1790).
See also: exist, hand, live
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- put words in (one's) mouth
- put words in mouth
- put words in someone's mouth
- put words in/into somebody's mouth
- put words into (one's) mouth
- put words into someone's mouth
- fat lip
- put words into someone's mouth, to
- spit in
- spit in (something)