hardship

From Middle English herdschipe, hardischipe, equivalent to hard +‎ -ship.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/

hardship (countable and uncountable, plural hardships)

1. Difficulty or trouble; hard times.

   He has survived periods of financial hardship before.

• softship

hardship (third-person singular simple present hardships, present participle hardshipping, simple past and past participle hardshipped)

1. (transitive) To treat (a person) badly; to subject to hardships.
   • 1969, Tract Series (issues 96-129, page 529)

     […] an adjustment of the income tax could easily produce the twenty millions without hardshipping any industrious person in the community […]

   • 1970, Reading Reform Foundation, The Annual Reading Reform Foundation Conference, page 47:

     Although we lost the election by the narrowest of margins, the people of Oregon heard a great deal about education, and particularly about how "look-say" reading instruction was hardshipping Oregon school children.