To Work Your Fingers to the Bone

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Meaning:

To work your fingers to the bone means to work excessively hard.

“Boy, I’m working my fingers to the bone today.”

Origin:

To work to the bone has been around for a long time; this type of saying has been around in writing since the 1400s; it was a great way to express that someone was working so hard that wore themselves out, right down to the bone. Here is a snip-it from a morality play that expresses working hard down to the bone as part of a series called the Macro Plays:

“Alasse, goode fadere, þis labor fretyth yow to þe bone.”

(Translation: Alas, good father, this labour fretteth you to the bone).

Throughout history, there are many writings about people working to the bone, but the idiom came to life when the phrase connected work hard and fingers to the bone was first written, in a 1729 opera, The Beggar’s Wedding, by Charles Coffey. It reads:

“And if we offer to complain, we are immediately whipt into the Work-House, where we must work our Fingers to the Bone.”

Example:

Today we still used the idiom to express that we are working really hard. An example sentence is:

“I have worked my fingers to the bone renovating this house, and I'm glad to say that it has all been worth the effort.”

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