no picnic

no picnic idiom
Difficult, no fun, as in Recovering from abdominal surgery is no picnic. This expression, alluding to a picnic as a pleasant occasion, was first recorded in 1888.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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