make bricks without straw

Idioms  

1. Perform a task without essential materials or means, as in Writing a report without the current data is making bricks without straw. This expression alludes to straw as a material necessary in early brick manufacturing. [Early 1600s]

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Example Sentences

Like the rest of us, newspaper men cannot be expected to make bricks without straw.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the latter, you are often expected to make bricks without straw, but in the former, to grow lemons without a tree.

From Time Magazine Archive

After all, to build his air force Marshal Milch had to make bricks without straw.

From Time Magazine Archive

Before dealing with France or anything further, I desire to say that the Canadian Ordnance Officers were very hard worked and had to make "bricks without straw."

From "The Red Watch" With the First Canadian Division in Flanders by Currie, John Allister

On this subject I first consulted with the carpenter, who answered, that he could not make bricks without straw, and then walked from me in a surly humour.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 10 Arranged in systematic order: Forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery, and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time. by Kerr, Robert