girding up one's loins

Verb

gird up one's loins (third-person singular simple present girds up one's loins, present participle girding up one's loins, simple past and past participle girded up one's loins or (archaic) girt up one's loins)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To prepare oneself for something demanding.
   • Man came into this world, not to sit down and muse, not to befog himself with vain subtleties, but to gird up his loins and to work.1857, Herman Melville, chapter 37, in The Confidence Man

   Synonyms:

   brace oneself, eat one's Wheaties, roll up one's sleeves, shape up, steel oneself, suck it up