make heavy weather

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

to make a difficult or unpleasant situation out of something simple

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

làm cho tình hình trở nên khó khăn hoặc không thoải mái

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: create rough seas
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He's making heavy weather of this simple task.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “make heavy weather” mean?

to make a difficult or unpleasant situation out of something simple Literally: create rough seas

Is “make heavy weather” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.