"like kicking dead whales down the beach" meaning in English

See like kicking dead whales down the beach in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Etymology: Originating in computer programming jargon. Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} like kicking dead whales down the beach, {{en-PP}} like kicking dead whales down the beach
  1. (simile, slang, of a task, process, etc.) Very slow and difficult. Tags: slang, usually Synonyms: like kicking a dead whale down the beach
    Sense id: en-like_kicking_dead_whales_down_the_beach-en-prep_phrase-Ebi0veF9 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English similes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Originating in computer programming jargon.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "like kicking dead whales down the beach",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "like kicking dead whales down the beach",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English similes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1993 September 16, Joshua W. Burton, “OD has no more alternates for remap -- should I worry?”, in comp.sys.next.hardware (Usenet):",
          "text": "I have a full backup, but restoring 213 MB of data from one oppy to another with a single drive, even using dd and big packets, is going to be like kicking dead whales down the beach. Is there an easier way?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998 April, Mark Fabi, “Wall Street Walpurgisnacht” (chapter 3), in Wyrm, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 65:",
          "text": "“How’s it going?” I asked. ¶ “Swimmingly, man. Like kicking dead whales down the beach.”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Very slow and difficult."
      ],
      "id": "en-like_kicking_dead_whales_down_the_beach-en-prep_phrase-Ebi0veF9",
      "links": [
        [
          "task",
          "task"
        ],
        [
          "process",
          "process"
        ],
        [
          "slow",
          "slow"
        ],
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile; process; simile; process",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile, slang, of a task, process, etc.) Very slow and difficult."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of a task"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "like kicking a dead whale down the beach"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "like kicking dead whales down the beach"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Originating in computer programming jargon.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "like kicking dead whales down the beach",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "like kicking dead whales down the beach",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "English similes",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1993 September 16, Joshua W. Burton, “OD has no more alternates for remap -- should I worry?”, in comp.sys.next.hardware (Usenet):",
          "text": "I have a full backup, but restoring 213 MB of data from one oppy to another with a single drive, even using dd and big packets, is going to be like kicking dead whales down the beach. Is there an easier way?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998 April, Mark Fabi, “Wall Street Walpurgisnacht” (chapter 3), in Wyrm, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 65:",
          "text": "“How’s it going?” I asked. ¶ “Swimmingly, man. Like kicking dead whales down the beach.”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Very slow and difficult."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "task",
          "task"
        ],
        [
          "process",
          "process"
        ],
        [
          "slow",
          "slow"
        ],
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile; process; simile; process",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile, slang, of a task, process, etc.) Very slow and difficult."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of a task"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "like kicking a dead whale down the beach"
    }
  ],
  "word": "like kicking dead whales down the beach"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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.