make bricks without straw

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

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NM: Actually, what the white leaders always said is that black residents weren’t paying enough taxes to have better schools in this situation of segregation, which was, of course, a total source of frustration to the black parents, because they said, “How can we make bricks without straw? If you don’t give us education, how can we get better jobs in order to pay more taxes?”

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You can’t make bricks without straw.”

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“They’re doing their best, but they’re trying to make bricks without straw.”

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And you cannot make bricks without straw.

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My mother told me that this was something like asking a person to make bricks without straw.

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make book make capital out of

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