work one's fingers to the bone



work one's fingers to the bone

Also, work one's tail or butt off . Exert oneself, labor very hard, as in She's working her fingers to the bone to support her children, or I work my tail off and then the government takes half my income in taxes. The first hyperbole, with its image of working the skin and flesh off one's fingers, dates from the mid-1800s; the less polite variants date from the first half of the 1900s.
See also: bone, finger, work

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
DoreenDAWR-eenEnglish
AttİLa-Turkish
Louisaloo-EEZ-ə (English), loo-EES-ə (English)English, German, Dutch
Vesna-Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Macedonian
Dragoslav-Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Medieval Slavic
BurgundyBUR-gən-deeEnglish (Rare)