scrape a living
scratch a living

To scrape a living, turned his hand to any work on offer.

They managed to scrape a living out of their little shop for over 25 years.

He managed to scrape a living from sale of these works.

In England, at least thirty million people are going to die before the rest can scrape a living.

Most of us are too busy scraping a living from the land or sea."

The family scraped a living through the decade of civil war and the Taliban era.

The fishermen must only just be scraping a living.

There remained very large groups - such as the blacks and rural poor who still only scraped a living.

He was soon trying to scrape a living as a tutor and pamphleteer.

Some, like Ethan, can barely scrape a living off the rocky, barren land.

Between 25 to 50 means you could scrape a living as a comic with appalling taste in T-shirts.

My family knew that however long and however hard they worked to scrape a living, they would always be poor.

From then on Banny and his mother barely scraped a living.

The 600 families there scrape a living from the mud around them, which they mix with straw or dung to make bricks.

In France, 40 000 small producers are scraping a living thanks to this additional activity which is extremely labour-intensive.

These trades were arduous enough - a ham sandwich seller might have to work 12 hours a day even to scrape a living.

He didn't think of himself as stubborn, except ins far as a man had to work hard to scrape a living from the soil.

A human thief like Thatz, she used to be his rival when they were both scraping a living on the streets.

Only in the most natural fertile areas of the world could the diseased remnant of a population now scrape a living from the soil.

The tourist trade is not helping the Dales pubs either since many of them are barely scraping a living and some have gone bust.

Before the war he was scraping a living at the "Turnip Street Workhouse".

I'm ex-military, trying to scrape a living.

They were too busy either fighting for their lives or scraping a living to pay much attention to food, as long as there was enough of it.

Composers who have until now scraped a living from commission fees, grants and minuscule performing rights are suddenly being wooed by record companies.

Liu's family was poor, living by manual work for others, and was only just able to scrape a living.

Anything here would be scratching a living, and barely surviving.

Two thirds of them scratch a living from the soil.

"Oh, yes, he and his wife managed to scratch a living without working too hard.

You never followed the herds or tried to scratch a living from the fields.

These are usually landless people who have no hope of anything except scratching a living in the forest.

"I can't convince you that I'm just another guy trying to scratch a living.

The population is overwhelmingly rural, scratching a living from agriculture, and experts at the department say the land cannot support that number of people.

Fowler looked at the tiny fields of black soil and wondered how anyone could scratch a living from them.

We're alive and by some miracle have a chance of scratching a living out of the ground.

We scratched a living out of sand and rock and lost it to the weather more often than not.

A farmer and his family scratch a living in the vastness of rural Australia.

He's awful proud of his mother, cause folks say she could scratch a living on a rock."

More than 700 families live in the creekside village scratching a living from fishing and farming.

Their rural cousins, who still make up 75% of the population, scratch a living from the soil.

Our farm here, it's only forty-four acres - we hardly can scratch a living.

Needless to say, nothing happened, and the dupes were obliged to go back to scratching a living as best they could.

It was hard to scratch a living from the flinty soil, or take fish in the stormy sea.

In 1960, he was farming with his brother, Abram, and finding it increasingly difficult to scratch a living out of the soil.

These people are barely scratching a living.

Many shop owners barely scratch a living but were targeted along with the big branch superstores.

Imagine an African peasant farmer trying to scratch a living from a few unyielding hectares.

We'd have been desperately poor, but we'd have scratched a living - it costs very little just to live.

Eventually he had to give up work as a builder and fisherman, and scratch a living in a traveling freak show.

Farmers continue as precariously as ever, scratching a living from the arid, rocky soil.

On the foreshore near the Bat Cave, a few people scratch a living by harvesting salt.