tough job
38
3.4
- noun
- /tʌf dʒɑb/
- Coaching the swim team is a tough job that requires a lot of dedication and effort.
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Watch on YouTubeImmigration is a really tough job, so people would rather stay home if they could.
- Immigration is a really tough job, so people would rather stay home if they could.
- Protecting someone against gangsters is a tough job because you it goes back to the question you asked earlier, Dodge.
- I'm a coal miner and I don't know that you've had any coal miners call in, but I wanted to say that it's a tough job.
- So, you know, she, she had, she had a tough job because as we know the kicker, it's really a kicker's game to win or lose.
Examples
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We know guarding the front line is a tough job.
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Being President is a tough job... if you do it right.
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What we do is a tough job and sometimes these things happen.
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But this is a tough job we're doing here.
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People are doing a pretty tough job that many of us would not do for a million dollars.
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Coaching the swim team is a tough job.
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I have been a bartender/waitress for 16 years, and it can be a tough job.
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Tough job, but someone's got to do it.
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We've got a tough job on our hands and, by and large, I think we're handling it darn well.
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Anyone who's raised kids knows it's a tough job and there's no time off.
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Synonyms
∞
3.1
A difficult task that tests a person's skill and will
439
1.6
A lot of steady effort to achieve something difficult
36
3.6
Hard work that needs a lot of physical effort or responsibility
21
6.5
An activity or event that is very hard and makes you very tired
17
6.9
A task that is very hard to do
7
5.3
A situation or task that is hard to do
5
7.6
A person, question, or thing that is very difficult to deal with
4
8.9
A job or task that is hard and makes you very tired
3
6.8
A difficult task that needs a lot of effort
2
4.5
A job that causes a lot of stress and has strict deadlines
1
5.9
A very large and difficult job that needs a lot of time and effort
1
9.3
A difficult task that takes a long time and a lot of effort
1
5.3
A very hard job that makes your body very tired
1
9.1
A very hard task or job that is tiring and difficult
A very difficult task that needs a lot of effort
A difficult task that needs a lot of effort
A very difficult problem or task that tests your skill
Antonyms
How Difficult
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a difficult or demanding task' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'tough' (difficult) with 'job' (task or position); the adjective simply modifies the noun in a straightforward way. This modifier+noun composition is common cross-linguistically and follows basic English grammar, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The phrase tough job comes from the image of something tough to chew, like a hard piece of meat that takes a lot of effort to eat. So a tough job means a task that is 'difficult' and needs a lot of effort and hard work.