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

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːdˌʃɪp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hard‧ship

hardship (countable and uncountable, plural hardships)

1. Difficulty or trouble; hard times.

   Synonyms: distress, grief; see also Thesaurus:distress

   He has survived periods of financial hardship before.

   • 1962 December, “Dr. Beeching previews the plan for British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 377:

     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.

   • 2020 May 20, Philip Haigh, “Ribblehead: at the heart of the S&C's survival and its revival”, in Rail, page 26:

     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.

2. A burden, a source of difficulty that could impose a barrier.

   Synonyms: distress, problem, sorrow, trouble; see also Thesaurus:woe

   When you visit the museum, we invite you to make a donation of $10 if this will not be a hardship.

• softship
• enthusiasm

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, numbers 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.