make bricks without straw

present singular third person makes bricks without straw · participle present making bricks without straw · participle past made bricks without straw · past made bricks without straw · alternative make bricks without straws

1. idiomaticTo accomplish a task without the proper materials or under unreasonable conditions; to do the impossible.

   The founders did more than "make bricks without straw; they dreamed of a great cathedral and laid the foundations for it.

   1938, Jonas A. Jonasson, Bricks without straw: the story of Linfield College, page 168

   2 more examples

   To call on the owners of little farms, the tradesmen, labourers and sailors to pay their proportion of a [£20,000] tax, when perhaps there is not half that sum in circulation is something harder than being forced to make bricks without straw,” he wrote; "it is to make them without clay."

   2008, Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, →ISBN, page 30

   The problems that we may find ourselves confronted with may be similar to a make bricks without straw condition, imposed by not only others but in large measure ourselves.

   2014, Peter F. Serra, Snapshots of Inspiration, →ISBN, page 170

   Synonyms: make bricks without clay