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3. be up against

be up against

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be up against something/somebody

if you are up against a situation, a person, or a group of people, they make it very difficult for you to achieve what you want to achieve When I saw how deeply the racist views were held I began to understand what we were up against. The Welsh rugby team will really be up against it (= have a lot of problems) when they take on France next week.

See also: up