heavy lifting
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- The difficult, strenuous, or essential work required to achieve a goal: "Heavy lifting" refers to the most demanding part of a task, project, or effort, often involving significant physical, mental, or logistical effort.
Usage
- The term is primarily used figuratively to describe the core, difficult work in any context, not just physical labor.
- It often implies that while many may benefit from or contribute to a project, only a few are responsible for the most challenging parts.
- Common in business, project management, and collaborative contexts.
Examples
- Noun:
- The junior team members handled the presentation, but the senior analysts did all the heavy lifting on the research report.
- This software automates the routine tasks, so our staff can focus on the intellectual heavy lifting.
- We have a great idea, but we need a partner who is willing to do the heavy lifting to make it a reality.
Advanced Usage
- "to do the heavy lifting": This is the most common verb collocation, meaning to perform the difficult core work.
- Our engineering department does the heavy lifting for all product development.
- "the heavy lifting is done": Used to indicate that the most difficult part of a process is complete.
- Now that the prototype is built, the heavy lifting is done, and we can focus on refinements.
Variants and Related Words
- Heavy lifter (noun): A person or entity that performs the difficult work.
- She is the heavy lifter on our team; she solves the most complex problems.
Synonyms
- Hard work
- The hard part
- The brunt of the work
- The donkey work (informal)
- The grunt work (informal)
Related Idioms
- "Carry the load": To bear the main burden of work or responsibility. This is similar but can imply a sustained burden rather than a specific difficult task.
- While the manager was on leave, her assistant carried the load.
Noun
- difficult work
- the boss hoped the plan would succeed but he wasn't willing to do the heavy lifting