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Glite Dictionary
to make heavy going of

to make heavy going of

8.4
Treat a task as harder or slower than it really is
  • phrasal verb
  • UK
translation icon : hacer difícil
  • Try not to make heavy going of this task; it's really quite straightforward.

Examples

  • He always makes heavy going of the simplest chores around the house.

  • She seemed to make heavy going of her homework last night.

  • Don't make heavy going of this simple task!

  • She tends to make heavy going of her assignments.

  • He always makes heavy going of the simplest chores around the house.

  • Try not to make heavy going of this task; it's really quite straightforward.

  • She tends to make heavy going of her assignments.

Synonyms

to slog
vsto make heavy going of
5 6.7

To work hard for a long time on a task that is difficult or tiring

means experiencing or treating a task as more difficult or tedious than it is
to make hard work of
vsto make heavy going of
  • UK
6.0

Do a simple job slowly or in the wrong way so it is much harder than needed

describes viewing a task as harder than it really is

Antonyms

to breeze through
  • Informal
5 3.6

To succeed at something quickly and easily

How Hard

to struggle
851 2.8
difficult
∞ 1.6
to make heavy going of
  • UK
8.4
to make a meal of
  • Informal
1 8.3

Surface Forms

make heavy going of infinitive
made heavy going of past
made heavy going of past participle
making heavy going of present participle
makes heavy going of third person singular

Morphology

make + heavy + going + of

The meaning is directly derivable from the constituents: 'make' (cause) + 'heavy' (difficult, burdensome) + 'going' (progress), yielding 'cause progress to be difficult' (i.e. make something hard to get through). The compound concept 'heavy-going' is a transparent, commonly attested adjective in English and follows ordinary compositional patterns, so an average B1 learner who knows the component words would likely infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

The phrase make heavy going of comes from the picture of walking: when the ground is wet or muddy, going becomes heavy and you move very slowly. So if someone 'makes heavy going of' a task, they are making it slower and harder than it needs to be.