🗓️ Idiom: Be a Pain in the Neck (v)
💬 Meaning
- To be very annoying or difficult
- To cause problems or frustration
🧠 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.
🏛️ 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.”
📝 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.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
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Rob is a CELTA qualified English teacher with 15 years of international experience. He has a BSc and PGDip from Loughborough and St Andrews universities in the UK. He has taught in Thailand and Saudi Arabia and now works with professionals worldwide.
