backbreaking work
Physically punishing toil
Backbreaking work is labor so physically demanding it exhausts the body—the kind that leaves you sore and depleted.
The image is of bending and lifting until your back gives out.
The phrase applies to farming, construction, moving heavy loads: Harvesting tobacco was backbreaking work.
It can extend to any grueling effort: Writing the dissertation was backbreaking work.
- gruelingExtremely tiring and demanding
- exhaustingDepleting one's stamina
- hard laborStrenuous punitive work
- laborStrenuous effort; also childbirth
- toilStrenuous, prolonged effort
blood sweat and tears · sweat · sore · muscles · heavy lifting · fatigue · drudgery · relentless · long hours · hauling · digging · lifting · aching · calluses · strain · overtime · grind · punishing
- laborlabor, labor union, labor force, laborers, labor movement
- rural declinedepopulation, rural exodus, brain drain, outmigration, dying towns
backbreaking workdesk job
Seated indoor employment
office work · light duty · light work · desk work · paperwork
backbreaking workeasy street
State of financial security
a breeze · child's play · a walk in the park · sinecure · gravy train
backbreaking workpiece of cake
Idiomatic easy task
cakewalk · sinecure · no-brainer · child's play · walk in the park
back, breaking, work, backed, backing, backbone, backhand, backward, backwards