like pulling teeth
If you say that making someone do something was like pulling teeth, you mean it was very difficult and they did not want to do it:
Getting her to tell me about her childhood was like pulling teeth.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Causing difficulties for oneself or others
- be a tall order idiom
- be asking for trouble idiom
- be your own worst enemy idiom
- bugger
- bugger sb about
- dig
- lay
- lay yourself open to attack, criticism, ridicule, etc. idiom
- make a rod for your own back idiom
- make heavy weather of sth idiom
- overburden
- pitchfork sb into sth
- pose
- shoot
- store
- store sth up
- store up trouble/problems idiom
- subject sb/sth to sth
- suicidal
- wrong-foot
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