nose to the grindstone
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.38 in modern English
24
Scrabble Score
19
Letters
4
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Used to form idioms meaning "to force someone to work hard or to focus intensely upon their work".
Obsolete
noun
Used to form idioms meaning "to force oneself to work hard or to focus intensely upon one's work".
adv
Example Sentences
- "This Text holdeth their noses so hard to the grynde stone that it clean disfigureth their faces."
- "I shall to reuenge former hurts, Hold their noses to grinstone."
- "Be to the Poor like onie whunstane, And haud their noses to the grunstane."
- "People whose heads are a little up in the world, have no occasion to keep their nose to the grindstone."
- "I travelled energetically; I went everywhere and saw everything; took as many letters as possible, and made as many acquaintances. In short, I held my nose to the grindstone."
- "Thirty years ago, I lived in Stearns County with my wife and little boy in a rented farmhouse south of Freeport, an area of nose-to-the-grindstone German Catholics proud of their redneck reputation."
Etymology
From the literal action of intensely working a grindstone, whether powered by a treadle or waterwheel. The expression initially implied punishment or abusive management, forcing the worker into intense work, and was used in the anonymous translation (1557) of Erasmus's Merry Dialogue as a hyperbolic punishment threatened for an abusive husband. It was later adapted to forcing oneself into similarly intense effort.
Usage
Inflected Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
see at strive
head down, bum up