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Glite Dictionary
🦫 A large rodent 🧥 Soft brown fur 🎩 A formal hat 💪 To work hard 🧔 A full beard 🛡️ Face armor
to beaver

to beaver

1 7.0
To work very hard for a long time
  • verb
  • /ˈbiːvər/
  • UK
translation icon : trabajar duro
  • I should have guessed you two professionals would be here early and beavering away.
  • beaver away

Examples

  • The Nazis have been beavering away for years since the end of the war, making advances in various technological fields and trying to get a mysterious bell-shaped machine to work.

    Blog text (21)

  • Alongside my unusual day job, I have recently been beavering away, creating a substantial human science research project for Sir Ranulph Fiennes's coming Antarctica winter expedition, in partnership with Michael Stroud, physician, world-renowned extreme physiologist, and a member of the Order of the British Empire.

    Blog text (7)

  • Even if only simple cells lived on that world, they had been beavering away for a long time to good purpose.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • You've been beavering away for weeks.

    Why Hide? (2018)

  • We're just beavering away at the table doing some worky bits.

  • At the moment, for example, one of my research students, John Worsfold, who is working on slavery and race in the early National South, is beavering away in the South Carolina and Georgia archives.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The team has been beavering away on this project for months to ensure its success.

  • She spends her weekends beavering away in her workshop, crafting new furniture pieces.

  • Despite the challenges, he kept beavering away at his studies, determined to finish his degree.

Synonyms

to work like a dog
vsto beaver
  • Informal
8 3.4

Spend a lot of time doing hard, tiring tasks

focuses on continuous effort over time rather than lacking reward
to beaver away
vsto beaver
  • UK
1 6.4

To work hard and steadily for a long time

is continuous hard work emphasizing effort over time

Antonyms

to slack off
  • Informal
3 3.9

To become less strong or busy

Idioms

busy little beaver
  • Informal
1 6.2

A very active person who works hard and gets many things done

Phrasal Verbs

to beaver away
  • UK
1 6.4

To work hard and steadily for a long time

Compounds

eager beaver
  • Informal
3 6.1

A person who is very willing to do extra work and works harder than others

beaver board
  • Archaic
8.9

A thin lightweight board used for inside walls or ceilings

beaver eater
  • Informal
9.9

A joking name for a person who says they eat beaver meat

beaver fur
4.4

Soft brown fur from a beaver used to make warm clothes and hats

beaver rat
  • Australian
9.9

A small animal from Australia and New Guinea that lives in water and looks like a beaver

Beaver State
5.3

A nickname for the state of Oregon in the United States

mountain beaver
  • US
9.9

A large rodent active at night that digs burrows in forests on the Pacific coast of North America

New World beaver
  • US
4.9

A large animal from North America that lives near water, builds dams, and has a wide flat tail

Old World beaver
  • UK
8.4

A large water rodent from Europe and western Asia different from the North American beaver

How Hard

to slave
47 5.3
to beaver
  • UK
1 7.0
labor
  • US
606 1.4
work
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

beaver infinitive
beavered past
beavered past participle
beavering present participle
beavers third person singular

Etymology

Beaver (verb) comes from the animal's hard-working image of building dams, so to 'beaver away' means to work hard and steadily like a beaver.