up against it
Having or likely to face serious problems, stresses, or difficulties. Each year, more and more families find themselves up against it going into the holiday season. Sorry I haven't been in touch recently, I've just really been up against it at work the last few weeks.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
up against it
INFORMALIf you are up against it, you have a very difficult problem or situation to deal with. Playing into the wind in the second half, the team were really up against it. You have to help me — I'm really up against it at the moment.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
up against it
facing some serious but unspecified difficulty. informalFarlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
up aˈgainst it
(informal) in a difficult situation: Two of the staff are sick and the order has to be ready for delivery by this evening, so we’re really up against it.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
up against it
mod. having a personal crisis; having a financial crisis. This is my bad season. I’m really up against it.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
up against it/the wall
In trouble. This slangy Americanism of the late nineteenth century uses “it” in a general way to mean any kind of difficulty. When “the wall” is substituted, it may refer to the practice of lining criminals up against a wall, or, more likely, of having one’s back to the wall. “I saw I was up against it,” wrote George Ade (Artie, 1896).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer