break the back of

present singular third person breaks the back of · participle present breaking the back of · past broke the back of · participle past broken the back of

1. idiomaticTo complete the greater part of (a project) or solve the most critical part of (a problem).

   I've broken the back of painting the shed – I'll finish it after lunch.

   3 more examples

   […] broke the back of the housing problem in this country .

   1946, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).

   I think we will find, or I predict that we will find, that during the course of this year we will break the back of the energy crisis.

   1974, The 1974 Economic Report of the President

   I plan to grab my chance to take a break by trying to break the back of all the tasks that have flown through the ether into my inbox during the course of the morning.

   2023, Kas Hawes, The Heart of the Matter: A Day in the Life of a GP

2. To overburden (a person, group, or organization).

   You will have heard of the three kathia system. It broke the back of the farmers.

   1962, Rajendra Prasad, Legacy of Gandhiji: Speeches, page 6

   2 more examples

   And it's about helping people provide for their workers, but doing it—I;m talking about health care, training—gut doing it in a way that just doesn't break the back of the small business that's struggling anyway and make them lay off workers in order to accommodate some Federal mandate from Washington, DC.

   1992, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, page 1627

   It'll just break the back of consumers. It'll break the back of people who are sick. It'll break the back of Medicare, break the back of state governments and the Medicaid system .

   2004, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Generic Pharmaceuticals, page 86

3. To cripple.

   The Russian intervention then broke the back of IS in north-western Syria enabling the knockout blow to fall on Raqqa in October 2017 as this was the last stand of IS.

   2021, Daurius Figueira, The Islamic State and the Muslims of Trinidad and Tobago in the 21st Century, page 125

   2 more examples

   I don't think it has broken the back of organized crime at all in the New England area, any more than I think when we got convictions in Buffalo that it broke the back of organized crime in Buffalo, or when Mr. McKeon got convictions in Detroit it broke the back of organized crime in Detroit.

   1970, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Legal and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee, Federal Effort Against Organized Crime, page 60

   To prop up capitalism, the bosses and politicians from both parties are driving down the standard of living for the 99 percent and keeping the profits for themselves. In order to do this, they need to break the back of the labor movement.

   2015, Nellie Wong, Talking Back: Voices of Color