a tough row to hoe

a difficult situation to deal with The author said that he knew it would be a tough row to hoe when he began research for this book.

Informal

A difficult situation to endure.

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Ruy	-	Portuguese, Spanish
PÄIvÄ	PIE-va	Finnish
Susanna	soo-ZAHN-nah (Italian), SOO-sahn-nah (Finnish), soo-ZAN-ə (English)	Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Dutch, English, Biblical, Biblical Latin, Old Church Slavic
SamİYe	-	Turkish
Nayden	-	Bulgarian
Dene	DEEN	English (Rare)