idiom / phrasal phrase · neutral
break the back of
/breɪk ðə bæk əv/BACK
to complete or overcome the hardest part of something, making the rest easier
Examples
“We broke the back of the project in the first two weeks; the rest was routine.”
“Once they finished recruiting, they had broken the back of the expansion plan.”
“Clearing the legal issues broke the back of the whole process.”
Band 8 sentence
“By resolving the regulatory hurdles early, the team effectively broke the back of the project timeline.”
Collocations
- break the back of the problem
- break the back of the task
Word family
Common mistakes
break the back→break the back of
break someone's back (literal)→break the back of (a task)
Say it for a higher band
5get past the hardest part→6overcome the toughest part→7+break the back of
Synonyms
overcome the hardest part
get past the toughest part
Easily confused
break the back of vs break the bank
“Once we fixed the design issue, we had broken the back of the development work.”
Related words
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