Meanings
- idiomaticLabouring with great effort and diligence; working hard.
I'm sorry I can't make it to the party—I'm going to be hard at work all day.
2 more examples
The relegation of locomotives to storage seemed to be on a very unsystematic basis on all three principal Irish railways: while one member of a class was rusting in a yard, another might be hard at work in revenue-earning service—[…].
1959 June 29, R. A. Young, “A Railway Holiday in Ireland—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 416“Containerization is a long overdue step in bringing our city’s trash collection into the modern era, putting an end to the piles of garbage that have become far too common across our city,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Julia Kerson. “We will be hard at work rolling out this program throughout the five boroughs, keeping our public realm clean, safe and enjoyable for all New Yorkers.”
2026 April 17, “Mayor Mamdani Takes Major Step Toward Citywide Trash Containerization, Announces Six New Districts”, in NYC.gov, archived from the original on 03 Jul 2026
Cite this entry
hard at work. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hard%20at%20work
“hard at work.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hard%20at%20work. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hard at work,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hard%20at%20work.
Source: hard at work on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.