hardship

Etymology

From Middle English hardshipe, equivalent to hard + -ship.

noun

1. Difficulty or trouble; hard times.
   He has survived periods of financial hardship before.
   If train services of this kind were to be cut off, without any provision of alternative services, there would, of course, be hardship in some cases. 1962 December, “Dr. Beeching previews the plan for British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 377
   The TUCC's role was to assess what (if any) hardship a BR closure proposal would cause, and to make recommendations to ministers who would have the final say. May 20 2020, Philip Haigh, “Ribblehead: at the heart of the S&C's survival and its revival”, in Rail, page 26
2. A burden, a source of difficulty that could impose a barrier.
   When you visit the museum, we invite you to make a donation of $10 if this will not be a hardship.

verb

1. (transitive) To treat (a person) badly; to subject to hardships.
   […] an adjustment of the income tax could easily produce the twenty millions without hardshipping any industrious person in the community […] 1969, Tract Series, numbers 96-129, page 529
   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. 1970, Reading Reform Foundation, The Annual Reading Reform Foundation Conference, page 47