hard knocks
Life's harsh teachers
Hard knocks are the difficult experiences that teach practical lessons—setbacks, failures, and adversities encountered in real life rather than in classrooms.
The phrase appears almost exclusively in the school of hard knocks, meaning education gained through harsh experience: He never went to college, but he graduated from the school of hard knocks.
- lessonsUnits of teaching
- experiencePractical knowledge from life
- life experienceAccumulated personal history
- hardshipSuffering from difficult circumstances
- hard timesPeriod of difficulty
self-taught · poverty · misfortune · rough patch · obstacles · scrappy · wisdom · street smarts · perseverance · battle-tested · fortitude · setbacks · stress · resilience · trials · self-reliance · baptism by fire · character building
- hardshipshardship, adversity, struggle, misfortune, difficulties
- life lessonslesson learned, moral, lessons learned, life lessons, parable
- street smartsstreet smarts, savvy, resourceful, resourcefulness, cunning
- learninglearning, learn, classes, instruction, studying
hard knockseasy street
State of financial security
silver spoon · charmed life · soft landing · smooth sailing · bed of roses
hard knocksbook learning
Knowledge from study
formal education · ivory tower · classroom instruction · schooling · prep school
hard knockssilver spoon
Symbol of inherited wealth
privilege · privileged upbringing · old money · lap of luxury
knock, hardly, harden, hardness, knocking, knocked, knocker, knocks, hardest