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What does “an uphill battle” mean?
Meaning, example sentence and a quick practice question.
C1
A difficult struggle that requires a lot of effort
“Getting funding was an uphill battle.”
From the C1 lesson A Piece of Cake (easy and difficult).
Quick check
What does “an uphill battle” mean?
Teaching this phrase?“an uphill battle” is part of a ready-to-teach lesson, with a reading, three exercises, speaking tasks and an answer key, in Everyday English Chunks C1 Pack 2 (Plans, Problems and Feelings).
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Related phrases
- a piece of cakesomething very easy to do
- easier said than doneused when something sounds simple but is actually difficult to achieve
- hit a brick wallto reach a point where you can't make any further progress
- a tall ordera difficult or demanding request or task
- sink or swimto succeed or fail entirely through your own efforts, without help
- back to square onestarting again from the very beginning
- cut cornersto do something in the quickest or cheapest way, often lowering the quality
- bite off more than you can chewto take on more than you're able to manage
- plain sailinga situation that goes smoothly, without any problems