tall order

Idioms  

1. A goal that is hard to fulfill or achieve, as in Getting a thousand new subscribers is a tall order indeed. This expression uses tall in the sense of “impressively great” or “difficult.” [c. 1900]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tall order

Making enough profit to justify the biggest infrastructure splurge ever is a tall order ahead of Anthropic and OpenAI’s hotly anticipated IPOs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

Getting investors to look past the dazzle of artificial intelligence and data centers toward ordinary roads, bridges and cell towers is a fairly tall order these days.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

We know baking a pie from scratch is a tall order for a weekday, but save this recipe for when you have more time this weekend.

From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026

That could be a tall order for a U.S. team that has made the quarterfinals just once in the modern era.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026

Then, in an extremely understanding voice, he said, “Well, I never did! That’s rather a tall order, isn’t it? What do you think yourself?”

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

Related Words

• arduous
• challenging
• intimidating
• onerous
• powerful
• tough
• tremendous