🗓️ Idiom: A Tough Nut to Crack (n)
💬 Meaning
- A problem, situation, or person that is particularly difficult to deal with or understand.
- Something that requires effort, strategy, or time to figure out or resolve.
🧠 Example Sentences
- That client is a tough nut to crack — they haven’t responded to any of our proposals.
- Expanding into that new market has been a tough nut to crack for our sales team.
- The pricing strategy is a tough nut to crack, but we’ll get there with more research.
🏛️ Origin
The idiom compares a difficult situation or person to a nut with a hard shell, implying that effort is needed to “crack” it open and get to the desired result. It has been used since the 1800s.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
Convincing the board to approve the budget was a __________.
Answer
tough nut to crack
2. Choose the correct meaning of “a tough nut to crack”:
A) A task that is easy and enjoyable
B) A person who is very flexible
C) A problem or person that is difficult to deal with
Answer
C) A problem or person that is difficult to deal with
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“That customer has been very hard to persuade.” → Change the sentence using: a tough nut to crack
Answer
That customer has been a tough nut to crack.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
👉 Marketing and Sales Idioms
👉 Business English Idioms List
👉 Student Space
👉 Tutor Toolkit
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