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heavy lifting

heavy lifting

27 3.6
Hard work that needs a lot of physical effort or responsibility
  • noun
  • /ˈhɛvi ˈlɪftɪŋ/
translation icon : trabajo duro
  • Gwyneth Jones does much of the heavy lifting to keep our café running.

I, I actually did very little Joe Buck did the heavy lifting that night.

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Examples

  • They're the ones that have done all the heavy lifting during his health scares in recent years.

    Blog text (6)
  • No, Writing is easy, but it's easier once all the heavy lifting has been done.

  • So the heavy lifting, you could say, has been done already up to this point.

  • I just think, whatever it is you do, it's time you did some heavy lifting.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • But we get a huge leg up because Europe has done the heavy lifting for us.

    Blog text (18)
  • The moral is that either the United States takes care of the heavy lifting, or nobody does.

    Academic text (2009)
  • In fact, ChatGPT and tools like that will do most of the heavy lifting for you in terms of the information that you need.

  • The mechanical engineers do the heavy lifting; they move atoms.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Laura, thank you very much for organizing this with Stephanie and for doing the heavy lifting of bringing us together.

  • After weeks of planning, she finally began the heavy lifting to complete the project on time.

Synonyms

undertaking
vsheavy lifting
47 4.6

A large difficult task that needs a lot of effort

is used more for everyday hard work or heavy responsibility
tough job
vsheavy lifting
29 3.4

A difficult task that needs a lot of effort

covers demanding tasks that can be physical or mainly responsible roles
grunt work
vsheavy lifting
  • Informal
10 5.3

Boring, simple jobs that are necessary and take a lot of time

covers serious hard work or major responsibility, not just low status chores
tough going
vsheavy lifting
  • Informal
4 5.3

A situation or task that is hard to do

applies specifically to hard work or responsibility rather than general situations
heavy lift
vsheavy lifting
  • US
2 6.8

A difficult task that needs a lot of effort

is a broader term for hard work or large responsibility
mammoth task
vsheavy lifting
1 5.9

A very large and difficult job that needs a lot of time and effort

refers to hard work or responsibility without stressing huge scale
heavy going
vsheavy lifting
1 7.1

Hard to understand or slow to get through

focuses on hard work or responsibility rather than slow general progress
backbreaking task
vsheavy lifting
5.3

A very hard job that makes your body very tired

is about hard work or responsibility beyond only severe physical strain

Antonyms

3 4.0

Made for jobs that do not need much strength or heavy use

light work
  • Informal
3 1.0

An easy task that takes little effort

How Demanding

heavy lifting
27 3.6
hard work
355 1.6
light work
  • Informal
3 1.0

Surface Forms

heavy lifting singular

Morphology

heavy + lift

The sense 'hard or demanding work' is directly inferable from combining 'heavy' (of great weight or demanding) with 'lifting' (the act of raising or exerting effort); the metaphorical extension from physical weight to difficulty is transparent. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows predictable English noun phrase formation, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely understand the MWE.

Etymology

The phrase heavy lifting comes from the image of someone carrying very heavy boxes or weights, with heavy meaning large weight and lifting meaning the act of carrying. So when we say someone does the heavy lifting, we mean they do the 'hard work' or take the main responsibility.