1) Arid 2) Meager 3) Meagerly 4) Meagre 5) Poor 6) Unfruitful 1) Poor 2) Unfruitful 
Hardscrabble and Hard Scrabble refer to: ...[Harrisburg] Hardscrabble is a small section of Midtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is bounded by the Susquehanna River to the west, Reily Street to the north, 3rd street to the east and Verbeke Street to the south. The neighborhood is mostly residential and has a diverse housing stock ranging from American colonial to Queen Anne style. It...
[adj] - yielding little by great labor 2. [adj] - of a bare living gained by great labor
marginal adjective of a bare living gained by great labor; `the sharecropper`s hardscrabble life`; `a marginal existence`