What does "get blood out of stone" mean? I'm having some difficulty in understanding.

[sentinelranger]

I just happened to come across this idiom while reading a book a few hours ago; I've looked in some dictionaries but each one gives a varying definition of this idiom.

Take The Free Dictionary, for example:

"To do something that is very hard to accomplish, especially when dealing with other people in some way.
Good luck getting a group of toddlers to sit still—it's like getting blood out of a stone."

Cambridge Dictionary, on the other hand, defines the idiom as:

"to make someone give or tell you something, when it is extremely difficult because of the character or mood of the person or organization you are dealing with:"

What's with the supposed inconsistency with these dictionary entries? I still have a hard time trying to understand the true meaning of this idiom. Please help

 

[probus]

I'd like you to tell us the truth about your mother tongue. We can help you better if we have that information. I'm not going to respond to your threads until you've done so.

 

[sentinelranger]

@probus As indicated in my profile, I am a native speaker of American English, but I've always had trouble learning the language due to a learning disorder I was born with. I always got low scores on my English language tests. Not to mention, my parents forced me to read, write, and speak their native tongue Mandarin for the vast majority of my childhood. I'm only trying to better my English (think of this as me trying to make amends with my past self). I've managed to increase my knowledge of the English language by reading books non-stop since early 2021. And I do apologize for posting multiple posts to this website in the vain hope of "trying to get answers" that give you the impression that I'm an ESL student trying to cheat or something; yes, some of you are justified in thinking "why is this "native" speaker asking questions about general grammar and idioms and stuff when he/she could simply look this information for himself/herself?" I'm only asking out of intellectual curiosity because as I mentioned earlier, I really want to improve my English despite the fact I am a native speaker (most native speakers of the average persuasion in my country, frankly, have a terrible grasp of the language) I still have that learning disorder which pretty much makes it hard for me to process information.

 

[probus]

Thanks for that personal info, sentinelranger.

As I've remarked several times in other threads, dictionaries vary both in their goals and their quality. I'd have thought Cambridge pretty reliable but in this case have to side with the Free Dictionary.

 

[SoothingDave]

I understand it like this:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bloo...thing,of how much force or persuasion is used.

Something that cannot be obtained, regardless of how much force or persuasion is used

Getting blood from a stone isn't difficult -- it's impossible!