make bricks without straw
verbEtymology From Exodus 5:18: "Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks." (NIV).
1
Idiomatic To accomplish a task without the proper materials or under unreasonable conditions; to do the impossible.
- The founders did more than "make bricks without straw; they dreamed of a great cathedral and laid the foundations for it.1938, Jonas A. Jonasson, Bricks without straw: the story of Linfield College, page 168:
- To call on the owners of little farms, the tradesmen, labourers and sailors to pay their proportion of a [£20,000] tax, when perhaps there is not half that sum in circulation is something harder than being forced to make bricks without straw,” he wrote; "it is to make them without clay."2008, Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, →ISBN, page 30:
1 more example
- The problems that we may find ourselves confronted with may be similar to a make bricks without straw condition, imposed by not only others but in large measure ourselves.2014, Peter F. Serra, Snapshots of Inspiration, →ISBN, page 170:
- Related terms
- you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs