tough nut to crack

English

Alternative forms

• tougher nut to crack, toughest nut to crack

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

tough nut to crack (plural tough nuts to crack)

1. Synonym of hard nut to crack

Usage notes

• Tough/er/est nut to crack is by far the most common form in COCA (US), about equal to hard/er/est nut to crack at BNC (UK).

Translations

challenging problem to solve

• Finnish: kova pähkinä purtavaksi
• German: harte Nuss
• Italian: gatta da pelare f
• Russian: кре́пкий оре́шек (ru) m (krépkij oréšek)
• Spanish: hueso duro de roer m
• Swedish: svår nöt att knäcka c