work that will require significant effort and/or coordination between multiple parties for successful completion; can be used to draw attention to a task’s intimidating nature or ensure others are sensitized to its scope without sounding whiny, as in “Getting all the sales teams retrained on this new method by the end of the quarter will be a heavy lift”; used in a transportation context to denote complex logistics involved in moving heavy cargo; can also evoke a gym in which the lifter is attempting a significant weight; see also tough putt or tough row to hoe