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Glite Dictionary
to make hard work of

to make hard work of

6.0
Do a simple job slowly or in the wrong way so it is much harder than needed
  • phrasal verb
  • UK
translation icon : complicar
  • She really made hard work of decorating the room, taking hours to finish a simple task.

Examples

  • They make hard work of every meeting by arguing over small details.

  • You don’t have to make hard work of this; just follow the instructions step by step.

  • Don't make hard work of this simple task!

  • She always makes hard work of cooking dinner.

  • She really made hard work of decorating the room, taking hours to finish a simple task.

  • They make hard work of every meeting by arguing over small details.

  • You don’t have to make hard work of this; just follow the instructions step by step.

Synonyms

to overcomplicate
vsto make hard work of
3 5.8

Make something harder than it needs to be

causes extra effort by approaching a task inefficiently
to make heavy weather of
vsto make hard work of
  • UK
8.2

Act as if a task is much harder than it is

adds needless difficulty by working inefficiently or overcomplicating
to employ a steam engine to crack a nut
vsto make hard work of
  • Informal
9.5

To use much more effort or help than needed to do a small task

does the same but by inefficient methods that make tasks harder
pigs and whistles
vsto make hard work of
  • Informal
9.9

A messy result when someone makes a simple task more complicated

focuses on making things needlessly complex rather than working straightforwardly
to make heavy going of
vsto make hard work of
  • UK
8.4

Treat a task as harder or slower than it really is

means causing extra difficulty by inefficient or overcomplicated approaches

Antonyms

to simplify
99 2.5

Make something easier to understand or use

to streamline
41 4.1

Make a process or system simpler and more efficient

How Difficult

to make hard work of
  • UK
6.0
to complicate
101 4.1
to simplify
99 2.5

Surface Forms

make hard work of infinitive
making hard work of present participle
makes hard work of third person singular
made hard work of past
made hard work of past participle

Morphology

make + hard + work + of

The phrase is directly compositional: 'make' (cause) + 'hard' (difficult) + 'work' (effort/task) yields the meaning 'cause something to be difficult to do.' This follows regular English patterns (make + adjective+noun/of) and is likely inferable by a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.

Etymology

Make hard work of gives the picture of someone turning a simple job into hard work by taking the long or wrong way to do it. So it means 'to make a task more difficult than it needs to be'.