groan under the weight of something

groan under the weight of (something)

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 weight of the boxes on top for a while now.

See also: groan, of, weight

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

groan under the weight of something

(written) used to say that there is a lot or too much of something: The dining table was groaning under the weight of all the food.

The phrase suggests that something such as a table is making a low noise because there is too much weight on it.

See also: groan, of, something, weight

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017