push water uphill
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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
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push water uphill (third-person singular simple present pushes water uphill, present participle pushing water uphill, simple past and past participle pushed water uphill)
- (idiomatic) try to achieve a goal despite huge resistance, being an uphill battle
- 1917, Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal - Volume 21, Chilton Company, page 161:
- A Salesman Unaided by the House is Pushing Water Uphill.
- 2013, Zoë C Lloyd, All Patients Great and Small: Tales of a Rural District Nurse, BalboaPress, →ISBN, page 28:
- Persuading Kenny that measuring his calves did not require removal of his underpants and trousers was akin to pushing water uphill. He claimed that he couldn't tell what I was saying, which seemed strange as he had no problem deciphering the initial message.