groan under (someone or something)
1. Literally, to be in danger of collapsing due to supporting something that is too heavy. Come on, the shelves are practically groaning under the weight of all those books—can't we remove a few of them? What are we going to do? The pallets are just about groaning under the weight of all those crates, and we don't have a forklift here! I'm not surprised this whole thing came tumbling down—the boxes on the bottom have been groaning under the boxes on top for a while now.
2. To struggle with some sort of burden or difficulty (emotional, psychological, financial, etc.). The average person will certainly groan under these strict new laws. After months of groaning under the weight of depression on my own, I finally started seeing a therapist. It's been almost a year since my husband died. How long am I going to have to groan under the pain of grief?
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
groan under something
1. Lit. to groan while bearing a heavy burden. He groaned under the weight of the trunk. The rafters groaned under the heavy weight of the pianos.
2. Fig. to suffer under a burden. For years, the people had groaned under the cruel ruler. England groaned under the rule of Cromwell just as he had groaned under King Charles.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.