'Hú kǒu' literally means 'to paste the mouth' — an evocative idiom rooted in the idea of barely applying enough food or income to keep one's mouth 'sealed' against hunger. Historically, it reflected subsistence-level survival, where people scraped together just enough to avoid starvation. Today, it carries a connotation of working hard for minimal, often precarious, income — not for comfort or advancement, but simply to stay afloat.

The phrase is almost always used in verb phrases with aspect particles (e.g., 在糊口, 糊过口) or as part of larger constructions like '靠...糊口' (to rely on X to earn a living). It’s neutral in register but implies modesty, struggle, or humility — never prosperity. You’ll hear it in discussions about migrant workers, small vendors, or artists taking odd jobs; it rarely appears in formal economic reports but is common in spoken narratives and literature depicting everyday resilience.