or hard-uppishness, subs. (colloquial).—Poverty; a condition of impoverishment.
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 202. There were frequent … collapses from death or ‘HARD-UPNESS.’
1883. Illustrated London News, 26 May, p. 519, c. 3. These I O U’s … do not imply, as might be supposed, common HARDUPNESS.
1891. N. GOULD, The Double Event, p. 28. Ike’s knowledge of some of the bookmakers he had met in the old land led him to believe that HARD-UPPISHNESS would scare any knight of the pencil away.
