uphill battle

A task that is very daunting from the outset and continues to be challenging. The incumbent is so popular that defeating her will be an uphill battle. I'm terrible at math, so I have a real uphill battle ahead of me if I want to improve my grade in Algebra.

uphill battle

and uphill struggle

Fig. a hard struggle. Convincing the senator to see our point of view was an uphill battle, but we finally succeeded.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Alexis	ah-LEK-sis (German), al-ek-SEE (French), ə-LEK-sis (English)	German, French, English, Greek, Ancient Greek
Mere	-	Maori
Letitia	[li'tʃiə]
Manda	-	Croatian, Serbian
Ozzy	AHZ-ee	English
Myrna	MUR-na	Irish