hard row to hoe

noun

1. a number of persons or things arranged in a line, especially a straight line: a row of apple trees.
2. a line of persons or things so arranged: The petitioners waited in a row.
3. a line of adjacent seats facing the same way, as in a theater: seats in the third row of the balcony.
4. a street formed by two continuous lines of buildings.
5. Music. tone row.
6. Checkers. one of the horizontal lines of squares on a checkerboard; rank.

verb (used with object)

7. to put in a row (often followed by up).

Idioms

8. hard/long row to hoe, a difficult task or set of circumstances to confront: At 32 and with two children, she found attending medical school a hard row to hoe.

noun

1. an arrangement of persons or things in a linea row of chairs
2. 1. mainly Britisha street, esp a narrow one lined with identical houses
   2. (capital when part of a street name)Church Row
3. a line of seats, as in a cinema, theatre, etc
4. maths a horizontal linear arrangement of numbers, quantities, or terms, esp in a determinant or matrix
5. a horizontal rank of squares on a chessboard or draughtboard
6. in a row in succession; one after the otherhe won two gold medals in a row
7. a hard row to hoe a difficult task or assignment

noun

1. a noisy quarrel or dispute
2. a noisy disturbance; commotionwe couldn’t hear the music for the row next door
3. a reprimand
4. give someone a row informal to scold someone; tell someone off

verb

5. (intr often foll by with) to quarrel noisily
6. (tr) archaic to reprimand

verb

1. to propel (a boat) by using oars
2. (tr) to carry (people, goods, etc) in a rowing boat
3. to be propelled by means of (oars or oarsmen)
4. (intr) to take part in the racing of rowing boats as a sport, esp in eights, in which each member of the crew pulls one oarCompare scull (def. 6)
5. (tr) to race against in a boat propelled by oarsOxford row Cambridge every year

noun

6. an act, instance, period, or distance of rowing
7. an excursion in a rowing boat

n.1

“line of people or things,” Old English ræw “a row, line; succession, hedge-row,” probably from Proto-Germanic *rai(h)waz (cf. Middle Dutch rie, Dutch rij “row;” Old High German rihan “to thread,” riga “line;” German Reihe “row, line, series;” Old Norse rega “string”), possibly from PIE root *rei- “to scratch, tear, cut” (cf. Sanskrit rikhati “scratches,” rekha “line”). Meaning “a number of houses in a line” is attested from mid-15c., originally chiefly Scottish and northern English. Phrase a hard row to hoe attested from 1823, American English.

v.

“propel with oars,” Old English rowan “go by water, row” (class VII strong verb; past tense reow, past participle rowen), from Proto-Germanic *ro- (cf. Old Norse roa, Dutch roeien, West Frisian roeije, Middle High German rüejen), from PIE root *ere- (1) “to row” (cf. Sanskrit aritrah “oar;” Greek eressein “to row,” eretmon “oar,” trieres “trireme;” Latin remus “oar;” Lithuanian iriu “to row,” irklas “oar;” Old Irish rome “oar,” Old English roðor “rudder”).

n.2

“noisy commotion,” 1746, Cambridge University slang, of uncertain origin, perhaps related to rousel “drinking bout” (c.1600), a shortened form of carousal. Klein suggests a back-formation from rouse (n.), mistaken as a plural (cf. pea from pease).

see tough row to hoe.

see get one’s ducks in a row; kick up a fuss (row); skid row; tough row to hoe.