حُرْفٌ
1.
and
حِرْفَةٌ (S, K) and
حُرْفَةٌ (Mgh, K) and
حِرَافٌ (TA) Ill-fatedness; privation of prosperity; or the being denied prosperity; synonym حِرْمَانٌ [as verbal noun 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, according 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.)
2.
الحُرْفُ
A certain grain, resembling
الخَرْدَل [or mustard]; (Az, Msb, TA;) called by the vulgar, (AHn, TA,) or in the dialect of El- 'Irák, (TA in article رشد,) حَبُّ الرَّشَادِ, (AHn, S, K,) or الرَّشَادُ: (Msb:) n. un. with ة, (TA,) applied to a single grain thereof. (Msb.) [See article رشد.] Hence حِرِّيفٌ [q. v.]. (S, Msb.)