put to it, be

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Idioms and Phrases

Be confronted with a severe difficulty, as in I was put to it to finish this book on time . This usage is derived from the active sense of put to it , that is, “force or challenge someone to something.” [c. 1600]

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April 18, 2024petrichor

[pet-ri-kawr]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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