Effort Phrases

Phrases

• A big ask
• A hands turn
• A true professional
• All out
• An abortive attempt
• An uphill battle
• Armed struggle
• Asking for trouble
• At a push
• At a stretch
• At full stretch
• Beads of sweat
• Beaver away at
• Bend over backwards to help
• Blood, sweat and tears
• Boom or bust
• Borrow trouble
• Break your back
• Break your balls
• Break your neck
• Buck up your ideas
• Buckle under the strain
• Burst a blood vessel
• Bust a gut
• Bust your balls
• Bust your buttons
• Bust your chops
• Clean up your act
• Dig deep
• Do it the hard way
• Do the hard yards (Put in the hard work necessary for success)
• Do your bit
• Do your damnedest
• Do your worst
• Don't just sit there
• Don't trouble your pretty little head about it
• Donkey work
• Double trouble
• Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble
• Elbow grease
• Flat out
• Flat out like a lizard drinking
• Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains (Thomas Carlyle quotation)
• Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration (Thomas Edison quotation)
• Get down to business
• Get stuck in
• Get your ass into gear
• Get your hands dirty
• Get your teeth into
• Give it all you've got
• Give it plenty
• Give it some wellie
• Give it the old college try
• Give it your best shot
• Go for broke
• Go the extra mile
• Go to great lengths
• Hang in there
• Here comes trouble
• Hurry hard
• I Knew You Were Trouble (Taylor Swift song)

• I have nothing to offer but blood toil tears and sweat (Winston Churchill quotation)
• If at first you don't succeed try, try and try again
• If it kills me
• In trouble
• Jump through hoops
• Knock yourself out
• Knuckle down to
• Last ditch effort
• Lean into it
• Let the train take the strain (British Rail advertising slogan)
• Lick into shape
• Life and death struggle
• Looking for trouble
• Make a good fist of it
• Make trouble
• Move heaven and earth
• No challenge too great
• No pain, no gain
• Nose for trouble
• One's level best
• Pain barrier
• Play to win
• Pull your weight
• Push the boundaries
• Put in the hard yards
• Put some muscle into it
• Put your back into it
• Put your hand to the plough
• Reach new heights
• Rest up (take a break from one's arduous efforts)
• Revenge mission (an attempt to seek active retribution)
• Roll up your sleeves
• Root hog or die
• Run yourself ragged
• Shoulder to the grindstone
• Slave away at
• Spade work
• Stir up trouble
• Straighten up and fly right
• Strain every nerve
• Strike out swinging (A baseball expression meaning to fail while giving it your best effort)
• Sweat blood
• The labours of Hercules
• The little engine that could
• This is a local shop, we'll have no trouble here (A catchphrase from The League of Gentlemen)
• Trouble and strife (Cockney rhyming slang for wife)
• Trouble in Paradise
• Trouble with a capital T
• Tummy trouble
• Under your own steam
• Up to your neck in trouble
• We aim to please
• Wear yourself out
• When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me (Beatles song lyric)
• Work like a Trojan
• Work like a beaver
• Work like a dog
• Work one's fingers to the bone
• Work your ass off
• Work your butt off
• Working all the hours God sends
• Working party