hard nut to crack

Quote

1. Quote - Listen to the quote and guess what the slang means.

Definition

1. Definition - Study the definition.

difficult to break into; difficult to win over; hard to understand

2. Use - Learn how the slang is used.

Simon Cowell was responsible for bringing American Idol to American television. It is now the country’s most popular show. However, he is saying here that it was hard to figure out a way to be successful on American television. In other words, America is a hard nut to crack.

This expression can be used to describe a thing or a person.

For example, say you are trying to get to know your sister’s new boyfriend, but he is stoic and quiet. He doesn’t really say much about himself or express opinions no matter how many questions you ask. You could say he is a hard nut to crack.

Or, say your dream is to write a screenplay that will be turned into a Hollywood movie. Obviously, unless you know someone in Hollywood who can get your script into the right hands, no one is going to read it. Because there is so much competition in Hollywood, and because you probably have to know someone to get into the business, you can say that Hollywood is a hard nut to crack.

Examples

1. Examples - Hear some example sentences.

“Johnny is a hard nut to crack. He’s so quiet, I can never tell what he’s thinking.”

“Journalism is a hard nut to crack. It’s very difficult to get published. There is a lot of competition.”

“My boss is a hard nut to crack. No matter what I do, he never says thank you. I can’t tell if he likes me or not.”

Winners

1. Winners - See who guessed the slang definition correctly.

	difficult to satisfy by wonkapet
	It's difficult to make them laugh by Arsham
	it isn't easy to do it, win or battle it. by army_tiger
	I think it means that it's difficult to convince, seduce. by verocel
	very difficult to work with by helenhorse
	America it`s complicated. It`s a diffciult place to being succesfully by vivianadelbuono
	It´s a goal not easy to achieve. by Lali
	I think the implication is that: American are very difficult people to satisfy because their views on arts or on pictures are high and variable. Only high quality movie products do satisfy them. by subaby
	opposite of "piece of cake" It's hard to make a successful show in America. by hiprue
	Very strong, very resistant. It is very difficult to win against it. by ElBeam
	Difficult to achieve the goal..... by jimmyahmed
	I guess that means America is very hard to understand. by tutmo
	hard to deal with or handle or understand by patriot
	it's difficult;hard to understand. by panda&bamboo
	someone who is difficult to move/touch by 云淡风轻
	I think it means that it's difficult to find the approval of the American TV spectatorship, i.e. that being successul with a show on American TV is really a great and unique achievement by evarus
	It's something or someone difficult to understand or do by velang
	it's impossible or very hard to do by Lubov
	Difficult to understand ? by vincent_he
	Hard to deal with, difficult to handle by Jane-Angie
	that his business venture is a bit difficult in America by teenastar07
	A thing which is difficulot to do. by t_nanu@rediffmail.com
	tough to impress or difficult to conquer. by amlan
	America is a difficult place to figure out by ma19ji76d
	It's quite difficult to succeed in America by Atia
	hard nut to crack means ... it is not so easy to understand or deal with...am i right? by wendy wang
	It's tough. It's not easy. by bua
	He thought that achieve success in America is much harder than in other countries. "To have hard nut to crack" mean that we have to put a lot of effort to do something, much easier is to find a groove. by 23765

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