work one's way

Idioms  

1. Exert oneself to proceed in a particular direction; also, finance a project by working. For example, The painters are working their way from the top floor to the basement, or I'm trying to work my way into the publishing world, or She's working her way through college. [Second half of 1800s]

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Example Sentences

One may conceivably work one's way through a labyrinth; but Alexa's candor was like a snow-covered plain where, the road once lost, there are no landmarks to travel by.

From The Touchstone by Wharton, Edith

But then, of course, one does not work one's way into a final of a championship for conversational purposes, or for debating the merits of the sixth sub-section of one of the rules of golf.

From The Happy Golfer Being Some Experiences, Reflections, and a Few Deductions of a Wandering Golfer by Leach, Henry

To reach it it was necessary again to scale a part of the cliff, and, clinging to its face, to work one's way round along a ledge perhaps three inches wide.

From Tenting To-night A Chronicle of Sport and Adventure in Glacier Park and the Cascade Mountains by Rinehart, Mary Roberts

Money is not indispensable: it is possible to work one's way through.

From The Soul of Democracy The Philosophy of the World War in Relation to Human Liberty by Griggs, Edward Howard

Here and there, were groups talking aloud, and before the printing-office of the principal newspaper, it was almost impossible to work one's way through the crowd.

From Waldfried A Novel by Auerbach, Berthold