"it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it" meaning in English

See it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=}} it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it, {{en-proverb}} it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it
  1. (literally) The job is a particularly difficult and undesirable one. Tags: literally
    Sense id: en-it's_a_tough_job,_but_someone's_got_to_do_it-en-proverb-Ay7Q4~lM
  2. (colloquial, ironic, humorous) The role or assignment is a particularly attractive or desirable one. Tags: colloquial, humorous, ironic
    Sense id: en-it's_a_tough_job,_but_someone's_got_to_do_it-en-proverb-5jhtk~rL

Download JSON data for it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it meaning in English (1.3kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Firefighters have to put themselves in serious danger in order to save lives. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The job is a particularly difficult and undesirable one."
      ],
      "id": "en-it's_a_tough_job,_but_someone's_got_to_do_it-en-proverb-Ay7Q4~lM",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literally) The job is a particularly difficult and undesirable one."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "literally"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Most days, firefighters get paid to do nothing at all. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it!",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The role or assignment is a particularly attractive or desirable one."
      ],
      "id": "en-it's_a_tough_job,_but_someone's_got_to_do_it-en-proverb-5jhtk~rL",
      "links": [
        [
          "ironic",
          "irony"
        ],
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, ironic, humorous) The role or assignment is a particularly attractive or desirable one."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "humorous",
        "ironic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Firefighters have to put themselves in serious danger in order to save lives. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The job is a particularly difficult and undesirable one."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literally) The job is a particularly difficult and undesirable one."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "literally"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English humorous terms",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Most days, firefighters get paid to do nothing at all. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it!",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The role or assignment is a particularly attractive or desirable one."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ironic",
          "irony"
        ],
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, ironic, humorous) The role or assignment is a particularly attractive or desirable one."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "humorous",
        "ironic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.