work like a beaver

Idioms  

1. Also,. Work very energetically and hard, as in She worked like a beaver to clean out all the closets, or I've been working like a dog weeding the garden, or He's very strong and works like a horse. The first of these similes is the oldest, first recorded in 1741; the variants date from the second half of the 1800s. Also see work one's fingers to the bone.

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Example Sentences

He kin work like a beaver," said Bill Moody, talking the stranger over down at the post-office one day; "but I don't b'lieve he's got much ambition.

From The Ruling Passion; tales of nature and human nature by Van Dyke, Henry

I had to work like a beaver before I could brighten them up.

From Gallipoli Diary, Volume 2 by Hamilton, Ian, Sir

To succeed in business believe that it will be successful, assert that it is successful, and work like a beaver to make it so.

From The Power of Concentration by Dumont, Theron Q.

I have been in the saddle all the day and work like a beaver and am as happy and rugged as possible.

From Roosevelt in the Bad Lands by Hagedorn, Hermann

To "work like a beaver" is an almost universal expression for energetic persistence, but who realizes that the beaver has accomplished anything?

From Wild Life on the Rockies by Mills, Enos Abijah