Meaning
A burden of misfortune, guilt, or duty that someone must carry alone and indefinitely - an affliction so identified with its bearer that the two seem fitted to each other. Everyone has theirs, the phrase assumes, and mentioning it is half stoicism, half complaint. Earnest or wry depending on the burden's size; the plural crosses to bear invites the communal shrug. Simon of Cyrene's pressed service is the literal scene. Regional use: General English; Biblical origin.
Origin
The image is from the crucifixion narrative: the synoptic Gospels have Simon of Cyrene seized and made to carry Jesus's cross to Calvary - Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26, while John 19:17 has Jesus bearing it himself - and carrying a cross became the standing symbol of imposed suffering. Christine Ammer's Dictionary of Cliches traces the term from that story to its broad modern use, now often wry - her example is a tennis fan's football team, the Dallas Cowboys, described in the New York Times of 13 November 1989 as her cross to bear. Collins COBUILD keeps the note explicit: the reference is to Jesus being made to carry the cross to the place of execution, and the idiom means a responsibility or difficult situation you must tolerate. Farlex's current gloss, a difficult responsibility handled on one's own, and the universal we all have our crosses to bear complete the descent from Calvary to the morning commute.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- bear one's cross
- have a cross to bear
- we all have our crosses to bear
Usage Examples
- A temper that had lost him three jobs remained, he admitted, his own cross to bear.
- Caring for the orchard her grandfather planted was her cross to bear and, by July, her joy.
- 'We all have our crosses,' said the dispatcher, dispatching the fourth wasp nest of the morning.