Wiktionary
n. 1 A task to be performed. 2 A responsibility to attend to. 3 An occupation in which to earn a living. 4 A business in which to earn a profit.
Usage examples of "row to hoe".
Not if you've spent the last six years of your life hopping from the top of one post to another, even in ice and snow, but for the run-of-the-mill homicidal priest, it's a tough row to hoe.
Even the educated colored: the long-school people, the doctors, the teachers, the paper-writers and businessmen had a hard row to hoe.
Granted Temar had a hard row to hoe to make a success out of Kellarin but I wondered if my beloved was a little too inclined to give the young nobleman the benefit of the doubt.
Consider his position, you faint-hearted and self-pitying young men who think you have a tough row to hoe just because, when you pay your evening visit with the pound box of candy under your arm, you see the handsome sophomore from Yale sitting beside her on the porch, playing the ukulele.
If you're trying to intimidate me, Colonel, you're going to find it a hard row to hoe.