what a hassle
1
8.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
¡qué molestia!
- It was such a big project, and what a hassle it was to coordinate everyone's schedules.
Examples
-
What a hassle getting over here from the station.
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You know what a hassle that is.
-
But it, it's just people see what a hassle it is to deal with the consequences of, of making sense on this issue.
-
Tomorrow morning you won't even know what a hassle you've caused!
-
I forgot my keys at home, and what a hassle that turned out to be!
-
Trying to find parking during the festival? What a hassle!
Synonyms
109
9.2
A person or thing that is very annoying and difficult to deal with
107
4.3
A thing that causes trouble or discomfort
89
4.5
A situation that causes extra work or annoyance
62
3.6
A person or thing that annoys others and causes trouble
29
2.1
A thing that causes trouble or annoyance
21
3.2
A person or thing that bothers you
11
4.1
A person or thing that is annoying and causes trouble
How Annoying
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines the exclamative 'what' + article + the noun 'hassle' (a bothersome problem), so its meaning—expressing annoyance at an inconvenience—is directly derivable from the constituents. This is a productive exclamative pattern found in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the words will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
What a hassle may come from the image of things getting tangled or people pulling you in different directions, so you must struggle to fix the problem. That's why people say what a hassle to show 'annoyance' about something 'difficult or inconvenient'.