work like a nailer

work like a nailer (third-person singular simple present works like a nailer, present participle working like a nailer, simple past and past participle worked like a nailer)

1. (dated, simile) To work very hard.
   • 1834 September, Craven, "Goodwood Races – Tuesday, July 29", The Sporting Magazine (London) s. 2, vol. 9, no. 53, p. 388

     Boyce was working away like a nailer at His Grace's colt, an exertion he might have spared himself , but that it is necessary to do something for one's money

   • 1918, George Barr McCutcheon, The City of Masks, New York: Dodd, Mead, page 191:

     You might as well understand in the beginning that he'll have to work like a nailer for a good many years before he gets anywhere in the diplomatic service

   • 1947 January 13, Stewart H. Holnrook, “Lost Men of American History”, in Life, volume 22, number 2, New York, page 84:

     Lee had to work like a nailer to get the awkward craft turned about, and then by great labor at the crank "for the space of five glasses by the ships' bells, or two and a half hours," at last he arrived under the stern of what he felt certain was the Eagle.

• busy as a nailer