hard nut to crack | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic)Aproblemthat ischallengingtosolve.1893,Grant Allen, chapter 11, inMichael's Crag:He saw the dilemma. . . . It was ahard nut to crack. He could see no way out of it.1991June 14, Leonard Silk, “Economic Scene; Predicting When Upturn Will Start”, inNew York Times, retrieved22 September 2011:Germany's inflation proves ahard nut to crack.; (idiomatic,by extension)A situation, person, group, etc. which isdifficulttoovercomeordeal with.1928June 8, “Mike McTigue Gives Emanuel a Real Fight”, inMilwaukee Journal, retrieved22 September 2011, page 2:The coast lad found the veteran Mike McTigue ahard nut to crackand judging from the look on the Californian's face when the final bell sounded, he was mighty happy that the fight was over.2011January 12, Simon Shuster, “Will the E.U. Let Belarus' Despot Off the Hook?”, inTime:"But Belarus is ahard nut to crack, and it has used these methods to slip out of these East-West pincers before," says Alexander Klaskovsky.; (idiomatic)Aplace,opportunity, etc. to which it is difficult to gainentry.1885,G. A. Henty, chapter 7, inIn Freedom's Cause:The next day Archie, with Andrew Macpherson and Cluny Campbell, made their way through the woods until within sight of the castle. . . ."It would be ahard nut to crack, Sir Archie," his lieutenant said. "Unless by famine, the place could scarce be taken."1929March 15, “Five Mexican Armies March to Meet Rebels”, inReading Eagle, USA, retrieved22 September 2011, page 1:Durango, however, may be ahard nut to crack, as it is strong strategically and is reported guarded by 4000 rebels.2008October 17, Barbara Wall, “Housing crisis? Not for the superrich”, inNew York Times, retrieved22 September 2011:Nice work if you can get it, but the luxury market is ahard nut to crack.; (idiomatic)An amount that is difficult to finance.; Used other than figuratively or idiomatically:seehard,‎nut,‎crack.

Examples:

EN: The nut I refer to is going to be a hard nut to crack.
ES: La mencionada nuez será una difícil de romper.
EN: A very hard nut to crack.
ES: - Y muy dura de pelar.
EN: This fellow Dexter's a hard nut to crack.
ES: Nada más. Dexter es un hueso duro de roer.
EN: Yes, sir. That's a hard nut to crack, Brick. Statistics show that our losses are four times greater in low-altitude operations...
ES: Sí, de acuerdo, pero según las estadísticas, nuestras pérdidas se triplican cuando operamos a baja altitud.
EN: He's a hard nut to crack.
ES: Quiere echarlo todo a perder.
EN: But, excuse me, why do you want to give right to me this hard nut to crack?
ES: Disculpe, ¿por qué quiere pasarme a mí este problema?
EN: You're a hard nut to crack.
ES: ¿Qué más necesita?
EN: - But he's a hard nut to crack.
ES: - Pero es un hueso duro de roer.
EN: They're hard nut to crack, aren't they?
ES: Son nueces difíciles de roer, ¿no?
EN: You are a hard nut to crack.
ES: Eres dura.
EN: Yes, I know, but it's a hard nut to crack.
ES: Intente distraerse. Vaya a Egipto.
EN: It's a hard nut to crack.
ES: Es un hueso duro de roer.
EN: Let me tell you. She's one hard nut to crack.
ES: Te digo que es un hueso duro de roer
EN: They feed entirely on palm nuts a hard nut to crack.
ES: Se alimentan exclusivamente de nueces de palmera, una nuez dura.
EN: This alley is a hard nut to crack.
ES: Este callejón es difícil de sortear.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).