a hard nut to crack
Meaning: A difficult problem, or a person who is hard to deal with.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The final exam was a hard nut to crack.”
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: Some nuts resist any ordinary nutcracker. The phrase is found in English from the 18th century; Benjamin Franklin used it in 1745.
Equivalents in other languages
- Portuguese: Descascar o abacaxi — literally: To peel the pineapple
- Italian: essere un osso duro — literally: to be a hard bone
More idioms — Food & Drink
- have a finger in every pie — To be involved in many different things at once.
- packed like sardines — Crowded very tightly together.
- cherry-pick — To choose only the best or most convenient items.
- on a silver platter — Given to someone without any effort on their part.
- like two peas in a pod — Very similar in looks or character.
- cool as a cucumber — Very calm, especially under pressure.
More English idioms
- go off without a hitch — To happen smoothly, with no problems.
- lose one's shirt — To lose all one's money.
- every little bit helps — Even a small contribution is worth having.
- get the wrong end of the stick — To misunderstand something completely.
- have a bee in one's bonnet — To be obsessed with one idea.
- put down roots — To settle somewhere permanently.
From our tongue twisters
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. — A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.
- Unique New York. — Three words that jam the 'y/n/k' sequence together — repeat it and it collapses into 'you…
- Pad kid poured curd pulled cod. — Alternating repetition — the consonants swap at the start of every other word, which is w…