plug away

1. 1.

   work doggedly or persistently

   “She keeps plugging away at her dissertation”

   Synonymspeg awayslogkeep one's nose to the grindstonekeep one's shoulder to the wheel

   Broaderwork
2. 2.

   persist in working hard

   “Students must plug away at this problem”

   Synonymsplug

   Broaderpersevere

Questions about plug away

What does plug away mean?

plug away means "work doggedly or persistently". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for plug away?

Close synonyms include peg away, slog, keep one's nose to the grindstone, keep one's shoulder to the wheel, plug. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is plug away a common word?

plug away is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.