everlasting staircase

9.3

A difficult task or situation that never seems to end

noun

Literature

: escalera eterna

Sometimes, life can seem like an everlasting staircase, with each step revealing new challenges.

Examples

Climbing the everlasting staircase of bureaucracy can be exhausting.
The hero felt he was climbing an everlasting staircase as he worked toward his distant goals.
In the legend, a lost soul wanders the everlasting staircase, searching for redemption.
Life sometimes feels like an everlasting staircase with no end in sight.
Sometimes, life can seem like an everlasting staircase, with each step revealing new challenges.
Life sometimes feels like an everlasting staircase with no end in sight.
The hero felt he was climbing an everlasting staircase as he worked toward his distant goals.

Synonyms

never-ending journey

vseverlasting staircase

4.9

A long experience that goes on and on

focuses on an ongoing uphill struggle rather than a general continuous experience

Antonyms

conclusion

167 2.2

The last part of an event, activity, or piece of writing

finite

56 4.1

A thing that has a limit in amount, size, or time

How Endless

never-ending journey

4.9

everlasting staircase

Literature

9.3

long haul

Informal

41 4.9

short-term job

1 3.0

Surface Forms

everlasting staircase singular

everlasting staircases plural

Morphology

everlasting + staircase

The phrase is compositionally built: 'everlasting' (without end) + 'staircase' (a series of stairs) yields the literal image of a staircase that never ends, which a B1 learner can infer from the constituents. Extending that image metaphorically to mean a never-ending task or journey is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common mapping, so the MWE is transparently interpretable.

Etymology

The phrase everlasting staircase comes from the simple image of an everlasting staircase where a person keeps climbing but never reaches the top. So, it is used for 'a never-ending situation or task' or 'an endless journey'.