Welcome to today’s idiom from the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog. If you are desperately trying to finish important things at work before the Christmas break, this is the idiom for you.
My team was just given a huge new project for an important client. We have to finish it before the end of the month. On top of that, we have 3 new team members who we still have to train fully, and who won’t be working at full speed for some time to come. In other words, we really have our work cut out (all Hände voll zu tun) for the next few weeks!
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his idiom originates from the 1600s. It is connected to the work done by a tailor. When a tailor has cut out the cloth needed for the piece he or she is working on, it becomes clear just how much work there still is to be done. So to have your work cut out means it’s easy to see that there is a lot of work that you still have to do.