حرف

حُرْفٌ حرف حرفة and ↓ حِرْفَةٌ (S, K) and ↓ حُرْفَةٌ (Mgh, K) and ↓ حِرَافٌ (TA) Ill-fatedness; privation of prosperity; or the being denied prosperity; syn. حِرْمَانٌ [as inf. n. of حُرِمَ]: (K, TA:) lack of good fortune, so that one has no increase of his cattle or other property: (S:) debarment from the means of subsistence. (Mgh.) Hence the saying of 'Omar, أَحَدِهِمْ أَشَدُّ عَلَىَّ مِنْ عَيْلَتِهِ ↓ لِحِرْفَةُ, (S, K,) or, accord. to one reading, ↓ لَحُرْفَةُ, (TA,) [ Verily the ill-fatedness of any one of them is more distressing to me than his poverty: ] i. e., the supplying the wants of the poor man is easier to me than the making the bad to thrive: or the meaning is, the want of the means of gaining subsistence by any one of them, and grief on that account, is more distressing to me than his poverty: so in the Nh. (TA.) -A2- الحُرْفُ A certain grain, resembling الخَرْدَل [or mustard ]; (Az, Msb, TA;) called by the vulgar, (AHn, TA,) or in the dial. of El- 'Irák, (TA in art. رشد,) حَبُّ الرَّشَادِ, (AHn, S, K,) or الرَّشَادُ: (Msb:) n. un. with ة, (TA,) applied to a single grain thereof. (Msb.) [See art. رشد.] Hence حِرِّيفٌ [q. v.]. (S, Msb.)