Word.ws English Dictionary

nose to the grindstone

nose to the grindstone noun: used to form idioms meaning "to force someone to work hard or to focus intensely upon their work".

nose to the grindstone: used to form idioms meaning "to force someone to work hard or to focus intensely upon their work"
Image: William Hogarth, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

nose to the grindstone (plural noses to the grindstone or noses to grindstones)

  1. (idiomatic, obsolete) Used to form idioms meaning "to force someone to work hard or to focus intensely upon their work".
    • This Text holdeth their noses so hard to the grynde stone that it clean disfigureth their faces.a. 1533, John Frith, A Mirrour or Glasse to Know Thyselfe, sig. Avi v
    • I shall to reuenge former hurts,
      Hold their noses to grinstone.1546, John Heywood, A Dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue, sig. Bii
  2. (idiomatic) Used to form idioms meaning "to force oneself to work hard or to focus intensely upon one's work".
    • People whose heads are a little up in the world, have no occasion to keep their nose to the grindstone.1828, Lights & Shades of English Life, volume II, page 13
    • 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.1886 [1882], Henry James, The Point of View, London: Macmillan and Co.

Adverb

nose to the grindstone (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Hard at work.
    • Nose to the grindstone, he was up all night.

Synonyms of nose to the grindstone

Forms of nose to the grindstone

pluralnoses to the grindstone
pluralnoses to grindstones

Origin of nose to the grindstone

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.

Questions about nose to the grindstone

What does nose to the grindstone mean?
Nose to the grindstone means used to form idioms meaning "to force someone to work hard or to focus intensely upon their work".
What part of speech is nose to the grindstone?
Nose to the grindstone can be a noun or an adverb.
What is the plural of nose to the grindstone?
The plural of nose to the grindstone is noses to the grindstone.

Words near nose to the grindstone in the dictionary

  1. nose tackles
  2. nose test
  3. nose tests
  4. nose to tail
  5. nose to tails
  6. nose to the grindstone
  7. nose trimmer
  8. nose trimmers
  9. nose weight
  10. nose weights
  11. nose wheelie

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nose to the grindstone (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “nose to the grindstone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nose_to_the_grindstone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.