keep your nose to the grindstone

/ˌkiːp jɔː ˌnəʊz tə ðə ˈɡraɪndstəʊn/INFORMAL · C1

Meaning

to keep working hard without stopping

Examples

1Ben kept his nose to the grindstone all summer and passed every module.
2If you keep your nose to the grindstone, the backlog will be gone by Friday.
3Aisha keeps her nose to the grindstone while the rest of us chat.
4You cannot keep your nose to the grindstone for forty years without a break.
5Do you really keep your nose to the grindstone every single evening?

Grammar

Both keep and the possessive change, and the possessive matches the subject. Keep nose singular even when the subject is plural.

Similar in meaning

burn the midnight oil call it a day

More idioms about work and careers

All 20 idioms and the topic quiz →

learn the ropesto learn how a job is done pull your weightto do your fair share of the work snowed underhaving far too much work to deal with go the extra mileto make more effort than people expect get the sackto be dismissed from your job cut cornersto save time or money at the expense of quality

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