school of hard knocks
school of hard knocks noun: the source of an education consisting of real-world experiences, especially adverse experiences.
Noun
school of hard knocks (plural schools of hard knocks)
- The source of an education consisting of real-world experiences, especially adverse experiences.
- Trained, however, in the school of hard knocks, he now had learned the theory of success, and from that time on has had it.1870, The Men Who Advertise: An Account of Successful Advertisers, New York: Rowell, page 161
- Did Vietnam's school of hard knocks teach Americans to do peacemaking and state building right?2000 April 26, Walter A. McDougall, “Who Were We in Vietnam?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 27 May 2015, retrieved 03 Aug 2008
- Synonyms:
- university of hard knocks, university of life, university of the streets
Synonyms of school of hard knocks
- university of hard knocks
- university of life
- university of the streets
Forms of school of hard knocks
| plural | schools of hard knocks |
|---|
Questions about school of hard knocks
- What does school of hard knocks mean?
- School of hard knocks means the source of an education consisting of real-world experiences, especially adverse experiences.
- What part of speech is school of hard knocks?
- School of hard knocks is a noun.
- What is the plural of school of hard knocks?
- The plural of school of hard knocks is schools of hard knocks.
Words near school of hard knocks in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: school of hard knocks (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-school of hard knocks.ogg.
Cite this entry: “school of hard knocks.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/school_of_hard_knocks. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.