an uphill job

an uphill job

A task that is very daunting from the outset and continues to be challenging. The incumbent is so popular that defeating her will be an uphill job. I'm terrible at math, so I have a real uphill job ahead of me if I want to improve my grade in Algebra.
See also: job, uphill
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • an uphill fight
  • an uphill struggle/battle/task
  • an uphill battle
  • uphill battle
  • an uphill struggle
  • an uphill task
  • task
  • from the outset
  • outset
  • at/from the outset
References in periodicals archive
AW D L F A Pts 21 35 15 32 "You don't want to be getting any further behind because it becomes an uphill job to reel it in.
CREWE NEED TO KEEP CUTTING IT; Demanding Mac has McMullan and co on their toes
Remember all those hilarious James Herriot stories where the poor, putupon vet has an uphill job to tease out of some lugubrious farmer or other the slightest of sexual details?
North/south divide when it comes to comedy
A middle-aged Lear is more apt to strike us as "landlord of England" than "every inch a king." To redeem him is an uphill job.
King Lear
'They scored the goals when they had the momentum, and it was always going to be an uphill job for us after that.
Football: Stubbs refuses to accept defeat
He says: 'It's an uphill job being a parent these days, but families should make time for being together, and if they can't then the parents must reorganise their working lives.
Family Life: The GRUNT years; A generation of grunting children reared in front of the television is seriously lacking in linguistic skills. This is the startling finding of a government advisory agency, which has termed the language used in homes the 'daily grunt'. Elizabeth Davidson discovers parents are facing a daily battle with their monosyllabic youngsters
I thought it might be an uphill job for us to come back, but we did."
Football: Hod man out Gazza lights up the gloom
But that's an uphill job. This would be a great time for a new generation of "labor priests" to arise in the U.S.
Let's practice what the bishops preach
At times it feels as if everything you tackle is an uphill job fraught with frustrations.
STARS
Yes it remains an uphill job. We all know how picky children can be and how difficult it sometimes is to persuade them that what is good for them can also be good to eat.
Recipe for success; COMMENT The policy of honesty. The might of right. The expediency of principle
The England bench couldn't - and didn't - have any complaints as Scholes' challenge, again on Schwarz, was certainly bookable and turned an uphill job against the tough Swedes into a near impossible task.
FOOTBALL: OUR SWEDE NOTHINGS! ENGLAND 0 SWEDEN 0; Keegan's flops face struggle to qualify