laboring oar

English

Alternative forms

• labouring oar (British spelling)

Noun

laboring oar (plural laboring oars)

1. An oar that is worked with great effort.
2. (chiefly US, figurative, by extension) The part of a task that requires the greatest effort to achieve.
   • 2019, Kisor v. Wilkie (U.S. Supreme Court No. 18-15), Justice Kagan:

     And so too, when new issues demanding new policy calls come up within that scheme, Congress presumably wants the same agency, rather than any court, to take the laboring oar.

Further reading

• “labouring oar”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “laboring oar”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.