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
Mcfarland	[mək'fa:lənd]
Cambyses	-	History
Miu	mee-oo	Japanese
Florencia	flo-REN-thyah (Spanish), flo-REN-syah (Latin American Spanish)	Spanish
Mikey	MIE-kee	English
Ingo	ING-go (German)	German, Ancient Germanic