tough row to hoe

tough row to hoe (plural tough rows to hoe)

1. Alternative form of long row to hoe.

• Besides being found with row in the plural, in this idiom the adjective tough can be replaced by near synonyms and antonyms and comparative and superlative forms. Examples from COCA are hard (9), tougher (3), long (3), a (2), enough (2), rough (1), impossible (1), harder (1), easy (1). These compare to 22 for tough.