hard-nut

Updated: July 27, 2026

But I think Sherlock Holmes would have found it a hard-nut to crack if he had been set down blindfold on the Antarctic Barrier, as I was, so to speak, and asked to explain the situation. It was one of those folding American vapour-baths that Hassel sat in. The bathroom, which had looked so spacious and elegant in the fog, reduced itself to a little snow-hut of insignificant appearance.

Roald Amundsen - The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian antarctic expedition in the "Fram," 1910-1912 — Volume 1