hard luckn.int.adj.

1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xxiii. f. 188^v The time of his hard luck was not yet expired.

1576 A. Fleming tr. Sulpicius in Panoplie Epist. 39 It was his hard lucke and curssed chaunce.

1612 J. Taylor Sculler sig. D2^v Faire Betrice tucks her coates vp somewhat hie, Her pretty Leg and Foot cause men should spie: Saies one you haue a handsome Leg sweet Ducke, I haue two (quoth she) or els I had hard lucke.

1674 J. Patrick Refl. Devotions Rom. Church 10 I pitty the hard luck of Sir Guy, that he was onely a poor Pilgrim, and not a Bishop of his Church.

1706 Honest London Spy 52 What hard Luck had I, that did but once transgress, and must be always plagu'd for it.

1762 G. Green Nice Lady iv. 62 The Man that sows seeds in a Dunghill, has hard luck if he can't gather Pumpkins.

1852 A. C. Thomas Autobiogr. ix. 338 Mr Williamson has certainly had ‘hard luck’ in this world. A bronchial affection, joined to spasmodic asthma, compelled him to leave New-England.

1882 Ballou's Monthly Mag. Sept. 214/1 Some of our most promising students of divinity swore like pirates when they..had hard luck at the mines.

1911 Metrop. May 170/1 Perhaps she was only temporarily in hard luck, perhaps in danger of utter submergement.

1977 Newsweek (N.Y.) (Nexis) 30 May 28 Hard luck and soft evidence could well break the chain of culpability short of the top—and so put middle-level FBI men on trial..for crimes ordered or winked at by their superiors.

2014 Bath Chron. (Nexis) 13 Mar. 66 We've had the hard luck for the past couple of days and someone else is getting the good stuff.

1726 A. Ramsay Gentle Shepherd (ed. 2) ii. iii. 27 Hard luck, alake! when poverty and Eild Weeds out of fashion.

1858 Yankee Notions Aug. 233/1 ‘Alas, sir,’ said Bittles, ‘I made fifty thousand dollars at the mines,—’ ‘Very hard luck!’ interrupted the old gentleman, chuckling.

1888 Punch 15 Dec. 281/1 ‘I shall have a shot at the double event... Oh, hard luck!’

1913 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 22 Feb. 32/2 Down in the middle, where the weight of fish had been heaviest, the bulging mesh had split from corkline to purserope. ‘Hard luck, captain!’

1941 N. M. Gunn Silver Darlings vii. 140 Strong men, who could have broken the showman on a knee, tried to ring that bell and failed. Twice Don got it a couple of inches from the top. ‘Very hard luck, sir! Very hard cheese indeed!’ cried the sympathetic showman.

2008 Poetry Rev. Winter 77 If you are of the Elect, the saved, then good for you. If you are not, then hard luck.

1890 Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago) 13 Nov. 2/4 Dire and harrowing ‘hard-luck’ stories are already ripe among the journalistic in-experts who are struggling for the prizes.

1921 Domest. Engin. 12 Mar. 549/1 If the ‘hard luck’ business man yells hard luck to his audience he will get what he is looking for. That is p-i-t-y.

1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 2o June iv. e/2 A 1-0 victory for the St. Louis Cardinals over the San Diego Padres and hardluck southpaw Brent Strom.

1987 J. C. Kinkley Odyssey Shen Congwen iii. 69 Shen had written a hard-luck letter to Yu, a total stranger, asking for help.

2007 Golf Punk Oct. 77/3 Being a small track you are continually crossing paths with other groups, so the atmosphere tickles as hard luck stories are shared all round the course.