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nose to the grindstone, keep one's



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Idioms and Phrases

Stay hard at work, as in We expect John to get good grades again, since he really keeps his nose to the grindstone . This expression, first recorded in 1539, alludes to a tool that must be sharpened by being held to a grindstone.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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