grindstone, keep one's nose to the

views updated

grindstone, keep one's nose to the work hard and continuously. A grindstone was a thick revolving disc of stone on which knives were sharpened and tools ground. In various forms since the mid 16th century, this idiom originally referred to getting mastery over someone else by compelling them to toil unremittingly, holding them like a knife-blade against the grindstone.

More From encyclopedia.com