uphill battle
25
6.6
- noun
- /ˈʌpˌhɪl ˈbætəl/
- Informal
:
lucha cuesta arriba
- However, winning more Muslim votes will be an uphill battle for Republicans.
- face an uphill battle
- fighting an uphill battle
And this is yet another massive uphill battle for Elon Musk.
- And this is yet another massive uphill battle for Elon Musk.
- This proposal is going to have a massive uphill battle.
- And this is where it seems like an uphill battle that AMD has created for themselves for marketing.
- But outside of executive orders, Biden's got a big uphill battle.
- I see a real uphill battle here for Bernie, and it's really important.
- This is an uphill battle for all of us, as parents, as partners, and as people.
- But but still finished strong and came back to the SEAL teams and stepped in, knowing it was going to be a big uphill battle.
- If you make a question that specific then I think perhaps I could come up with some answers, but it seems to me such an uphill battle.
- And so often it's an uphill battle because we're trying to be helped within systems we've created and tolerate that are pushing against helping us.
- And that's that's a real, that's a uphill battle for her at this point.
- It's just like it's uphill battle, right?
- This context mates for a very steep uphill battle.
Examples
-
But doing so is always an uphill battle, experts say.
Academic text (2000) -
Governments trying to institute pronatalist policies will face an uphill battle.
Academic text (2012) -
But it does mean that we have to be very prepared for an uphill battle when fighting it.
-
That, that is exactly the reason why I wrote this book, because it's an uphill battle right now.
-
This is an uphill battle for all of us, as parents, as partners, and as people.
-
I mean, it was an uphill battle from the beginning, right?
-
I've had an uphill battle since I joined the family business.
Fiction book (1998) -
Plays dealing with significant issues or controversial themes have an uphill battle in the conservative climate of many schools and communities.
Academic text (1993) -
Malaysia's indigenes face a steep uphill battle to hold on to their traditional lands and resources.
Academic text (2011) -
We've been facing an uphill battle to get the reforms approved due to strong opposition.
Synonyms
16
6.9
A task that is very hard to do
9
3.7
The most difficult problem you must overcome
4
5.3
A situation or task that is hard to do
1
5.2
A very difficult task that you must overcome
A very difficult task that needs a lot of effort
Antonyms
How Difficult
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'uphill' (a slope or ascent) with 'battle' (a struggle), so the meaning 'a difficult struggle' is directly inferable as a battle fought while going uphill — i.e. harder to win. This physical-to-abstract metaphor is common across languages and follows a transparent compositional pattern that a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand.
Etymology
The phrase uphill battle comes from the image of trying to fight while moving uphill, because climbing makes every step and every action harder and the battle much tougher. That's why it means a struggle that is 'very difficult' to win.