busy as a nailer

busy as a nailer (not comparable)

1. (simile, idiomatic, dated, Ireland) working constantly.
   • 1832 Samuel Lover "The Devil's Mill" Legends and Stories of Ireland (Dublin: Wakeman) 2nd ed., p. 139

     So the Colonel went down stairs, and the Ould Fellow worked away as busy as a nailer, shovellin' in the guineas by hundherds and thousands.

   • 1888, Pennsylvania Secretary of Internal Affairs, Bureau of Industrial Statistics; Annual Report for 1887 (Harrisburg: E. K. Meyers) "G: The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers" p. 24

     The result was obvious; the nailer was no longer “as busy as a nailer,” and there was no prospect that he ever would be fully employed.

   • 2017 May 30, Noel Dundon, "Appreciation: The Late Eileesh Quirke, Holycross" Tipperary Star (Thurles)

     [...] she would be as busy as a nailer in the Abbey Shop ensuring that Mass cards were ready for those who came, and helping out in any other way she could.

• work like a nailer