hard going

English

Phrase

hard going

1. (especially reading and study material) Difficult to understand and enjoy.
   • 1960 January, “New reading on railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 26:

     THE CONCISE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF WORLD RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES. Edited by P. Ransome-Wallis. Hutchinson. 50s. [...] Its only noticeable defect is inconsistency in presentation and loose editing, which make its use harder going for the amateur than need be.

2. (of a task) Difficult and requiring a lot of effort.

References

• “hard going”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “hard going”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “be hard going”, in Collins English Dictionary.