take pains, to
take (great) pains (to do something)
Fig. to make a great effort to do something. Tom took pains to decorate the room exactly right. We took great pains to get there on time.
See also: pain, take
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
take pains, to
To make a laborious effort; to take assiduous care. The use of pains for “troubles” dates from Shakespeare’s time and survives mainly in this cliché (and in the adjective painstaking). “Yet much he praised the pains he took, And well those pains did pay,” wrote Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808).
See also: take
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- have to go some
- have to go some to (do something)
- map
- all over the map
- great many
- a great many
- gone to the great (something) in the sky
- (as) tough as leather
- have a good name (somewhere or in something)
- (as) tough as old boots