make hard work of

present singular third person makes hard work of · participle present making hard work of · participle past made hard work of · past made hard work of · alternative make heavy work of

1. idiomaticTo do (something) in a way that makes it more difficult than it needs to be.

   I made hard work of a very easy task .

   1905, Ad Sense: Devoted to the Interests of Buyers of Advertising, page 582

   3 more examples

   The motion is from the shoulder rather than from the elbow, moving the whole arm, and there is no need to make hard work of it.

   1895, Wisconsin Farmers' Institutes, A Hand-book of Agriculture, page 196

   Don't make hard work of it . An instrument in good condition is easy to blow when properly played.

   1985, Maurice Taylor, Easy Steps to the Band, page 67

   Unfortunately, Versteegh made hard work of his task once again by using the rather difficult manuscript from Cairo, Dār al-kutub 242 (Versteegh describes this manuscript on p. 156 as "very hard to read, and we have managed to analyze only parts of it.").

   2022, Andrew Rippin, The Qur'an and its Interpretative Tradition, page 47

2. idiomaticTo struggle to accomplish something.

   As Wright opened the door he made hard work of it, rattling the key in the lock.

   2005, Gene Kerrigan, Hard Cases – True Stories of Irish Crime

   3 more examples

   For arithmetic to-day, as the pupils made hard work of the examples yesterday, I changed only the numbers.

   1891, John Pancoast Gordy, Rise and Growth of the Normal-school Idea in the United States, page 80

   While we had made hard work of defeating Sheffield United in our FA Cup semifinal, Spurs were breezing past Burnley 3–0 in the other tie.

   2003, Gordon Banks, Banksy: The Autobiography of an English Football Hero

   England made hard work of the win against a stubborn and well-organised Iceland but were the better and more positive side.

   2020 September 5, Phil McNulty, “Iceland 0-1 England”, in BBC Sport