Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
row to hoe en · NOUN
Meanings
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A task or responsibility that must be attended to.
Look, I don't even know what I'd want to say to all the gay black males in the very small United States of America. Let me see. How about, "There're maybe a couple million of us, and we have a tough row to hoe, brother. But don't let the bastards get you down"?
1986, Samuel R. Delany, Joseph Beam, “The Possibility of Possibilities”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 207:
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An occupation or business by which one earns one's living or makes a profit.
Forms
Deriveds
long row to hoe