How to Use a hard/tough act to follow in a Sentence

a hard/tough act to follow

noun phrase
  • But the Tigers’ next coach will have a hard act to follow.
    Tom Green | Tgreen@al.com, al, 20 Nov. 2022
  • Bat Out of Hell was a hard act to follow, at least at first.
    Al Shipley, SPIN, 21 Jan. 2022
  • President Joe Biden has a hard act to follow in Europe: his own.
    Howard Lafranchi, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 June 2022
  • Receivers this high school football season have a tough act to follow.
    Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2022
  • The Sanderson sisters -- famous for being campy, creepy and over-the-top -- are a tough act to follow, or perform alongside.
    Mary Colurso | McOlurso@al.com, al, 3 Oct. 2022
  • Wood is the former chief judge of the 7th Circuit, and judicial observers said Lee has a tough act to follow in replacing her on the court.
    Bob Goldsborough, Chicago Tribune, 22 Sep. 2022
  • That said, John Malashock, who founded the organization in 1988, is a hard act to follow.
    David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 May 2022
  • That's a hard act to follow, and the two subsequent films never quite reached the same heights, despite their box office success.
    Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 23 Dec. 2021
  • Yet another reminder that Cassidy, much like the hallowed Fours on Canal Street, will be a tough act to follow.
    Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, 18 June 2022
  • To say that Diana is a hard act to follow is, well, an understatement: the late princess remains one of the most beloved figures not just in Britain, but across the world.
    Elise Taylor, Vogue, 18 Oct. 2022
  • Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is the definition of a tough act to follow.
    Emma Dibdin, Town & Country, 15 Aug. 2022
  • Everyone agrees that Queen Elizabeth II is a hard act to follow.
    The Salt Lake Tribune, 20 Sep. 2022
  • That is a hard act to follow, but the book provides an opportunity to spend time with the work in a more contemplative format.
    Vince Aletti, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2024
  • College football has a hard act to follow after last Saturday’s wild ride.
    Eddie Timanus, USA TODAY, 16 Oct. 2021
  • NorthPark has proven itself a tough act to follow, but that hasn’t stopped developers from trying.
    Dallas News, 27 July 2022
  • The show would be a hard act to follow — Beyoncé and Michelle Obama are stans — but eight shows a week for months on end had taken a physical and emotional toll.
    Ineye Komonibo, refinery29.com, 29 July 2020
  • Broly was a massive hit theatrically both in Japan and especially in the U.S., and that is definitely a tough act to follow.
    Ollie Barder, Forbes, 15 June 2022
  • Stephenson, with his crotchety, larger-than-life performance in the Dickens’ Victorian holiday tale, would seem a hard act to follow.
    Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Nov. 2022
  • Twenty-seven years after her untimely death, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez is still a hard act to follow.
    Isabela Raygoza, refinery29.com, 17 Apr. 2022
  • The Cincinnati native’s lone season at left tackle resulted in consensus All-America honors and a tough act to follow for the programs’ returning offensive linemen.
    Nathan Baird, cleveland, 10 Jan. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'a hard/tough act to follow.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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