to blaze away at
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
trabajar intensamente en
- Despite her fatigue, she blazed away at the project with remarkable determination.
Examples
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The workers blazed away at the repairs, finishing ahead of schedule.
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They blazed away at their assignments until late at night.
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Don't blaze away at the project without a plan!
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Why do you blaze away at your studies so hard?
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Despite her fatigue, she blazed away at the project with remarkable determination.
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The workers blazed away at the repairs, finishing ahead of schedule.
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They blazed away at their assignments until late at night.
Synonyms
56
6.7
Act with a lot of energy, often fighting, arguing, or working hard
6
5.2
To work slowly and steadily on a difficult task
5
4.8
To work hard for a long time on something
3
4.8
Try very hard for some time
1
6.3
Work hard for a long time on something, often before an exam or deadline
To keep working hard on a difficult or long task
To do very hard, long tasks until you are very tired
To work very hard at something until you are very tired
To work much harder and faster to get something done
To try very hard and work quickly to finish something
Antonyms
How Energetic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'blaze' (intense firing/bright action) plus 'away' (continued action) and 'at' (targeting) together yield a sense of sustained, vigorous activity directed at something, so a learner who knows the constituents could infer an idea like 'attack or work at something energetically.' However, the shift from literal firing/burning to the broader sense of 'working energetically on a task' is metaphorical and requires pragmatic extension, so the expression is not fully compositional.
Etymology
Blaze away at may come from the image of a bright fire or someone firing many shots, with blaze as the flash and away as the sudden movement toward a target. That's why it came to mean 'to work very hard' on something.