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🗓️ Idiom: Be a Pain in the Neck (v)

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💬 Meaning

• To be very annoying or difficult
• To cause problems or frustration

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🧠 Example Sentences

• Some customers are polite, but others can really be a pain in the neck.
• The new payment system is a pain in the neck for both staff and clients.
• It’s a pain in the neck when orders keep getting delayed.

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🏛️ Origin

This idiom compares something annoying or troublesome to actual neck pain, which is difficult to ignore and makes life uncomfortable. It became popular in the 20th century as a polite version of a stronger phrase, “pain in the ass.”

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📝 Practice Exercises

1. Fill in the blank:
Chasing unpaid invoices every week is ____________________.

Answer

a pain in the neck

2. Choose the correct meaning of “a pain in the neck”:
A) A helpful person
B) A serious medical condition
C) Something or someone annoying or difficult

Answer

C) Something or someone annoying or difficult

3. Change the sentence using “a pain in the neck”:
“Filing complaints manually is very annoying for the team.”

Answer

Filing complaints manually is a pain in the neck for the team.

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