push water uphill

• push water uphill with a rake, push water uphill with a fork

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

push water uphill (third-person singular simple present pushes water uphill, present participle pushing water uphill, simple past and past participle pushed water uphill)

1. (idiomatic) try to achieve a goal despite huge resistance, being an uphill battle
   • 1917, Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal - Volume 21, Chilton Company, page 161:

     A Salesman Unaided by the House is Pushing Water Uphill.

   • 2012, Michael Roe, Marketing Professional Services, Routledge, →ISBN, page 9:

     Without that commitment you will be pushing water uphill the whole time and will lose your own, necessary motivation.

   • 2013, Zoë C Lloyd, All Patients Great and Small: Tales of a Rural District Nurse, BalboaPress, →ISBN, page 28:

     Persuading Kenny that measuring his calves did not require removal of his underpants and trousers was akin to pushing water uphill. He claimed that he couldn't tell what I was saying, which seemed strange as he had no problem deciphering the initial message.

   • 2014, Roger Lane-Smith, A Fork in the Road: From Single Partner to Largest Legal Practice in the World‎, Icon Books, →ISBN:

     Our relationship with Donovan Leisure was doing well, in truth because Rod Hills and I worked so hard on it, but often it felt like pushing water uphill.

   • 2015, Stephanie Butland, Letters To My Husband, Random House, →ISBN, page 237:

     And they have another drink, and they try to talk about something else, they really do, but it's like pushing water uphill: it won't work, and it's exhausting.