eli5 How does the phrase “We got our work cut out for us” make sense?

Question

I always thought it did/should mean that the work was gonna be easy since it was cut *out* but apparently it means the work is gonna be hard and I don’t understand how it makes sense

In: 2

Answer 1

The meaning has warped, over time. That phrase is very old–like, way before the British colonies in America, let alone America, itself. It originally meant more along the lines of, “We have everything ready to being this project, so let’s get to work and do it.” Nowadays, it has a similar meaning–it’s still “time to get to work”–but it is generally used to imply a *lot* of work or very-hard work, as you noted.