heavy lifting

noun

: a burdensome or laborious duty

Examples of heavy lifting in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The girls dropped out of school and moved to Vietnam's capital Hanoi to work long hours in a restaurant, where they were exposed to sharp tools, hot surfaces and heavy lifting. — ABC News, 16 Aug. 2026

Judge Carro, presiding over that case, in February said local prosecutors had done the heavy lifting in the dueling cases. — Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 14 Aug. 2026

Voters are expected to do the heavy lifting of deciding whether a question preserves their favorite shopping center or bulldozes it for another data center. — Torrey Snow, Baltimore Sun, 12 Aug. 2026

Focusing On One Big Success There was a time when one big hit did all the heavy lifting. — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for heavy lifting

• drifting
• gifting
• rifting
• shifting
• sifting
• shoplifting
• uplifting