chug away

English

Verb

chug away (third-person singular simple present chugs away, present participle chugging away, simple past and past participle chugged away)

1. (of a vehicle) To move away at a slow, steady pace, especially if making chugging noises.
   • 2004, J. Barbara Alvord, Through Different Eyes: An Immigrant's Heroic Journey, 1889-1909, page 169:

     Locked in such musings as her train chugged away from New York City, the fourteen-year-old suddenly felt overwhelmed with longing for her own family.

   • 2013, Sandra Shakespeare, Mary's Boys, page 90:

     The crowd began to sing “Abide With Me”, troops and families sang, young and old, their hearts breaking, hankies waving as the big ship chugged away from the dock.

   • 2016, Samuel K. Leonard, The Broken Harmonica:

     “You taking that thing?” I asked. pointing to the car that chugged away.

2. (of a mechanical device) To operate continuously, especially if making a low mechanical noise.
   • 2004, Jim Collins, The Last Best League:

     Next to the baseball bats in the garage, a spare refrigerator cooled cases of beer and soda, and a commercial-grade icemaker chugged away.

   • 2013, Vicki Wootton, At War with Terror, page 408:

     The mayor opened a chest freezer that chugged away in one corner and removed several cans of orange soda, one at a time, and handed them to the visitors.

   • 2014, Doug Beason, Strike Eagle:

     The diesel generators chugged away.

   • 2015, Debbie McGowan, Two By Two, page 240:

     She continued to rotate on the spot whilst the coffee machine chugged away.

3. (by extension) To work at something in a steady, dogged manner.
   • 1901 February, Maximilian Foster, “The Greatest Game Fishing”, in Munsey's Magazine, volume 24, number 5, page 662:

     You mustn't let the tuna rest, if you aim to ever gaff him alongside. You chug away, lifting with all your strength. Up comes the fish, sulkily at first, fighting every foot.

   • 2006, Bobby Robson, Paul Hayward, Bobby Robson: Farewell but not Goodbye:

     Two years previously, they had won the FA Cup and finished second in the League. They bought me to replace Reg Ryan, a roly-poly midfielder who chugged and chugged away, because they needed someone with fresher legs.

   • 2018, Michael S. A. Graziano, The Spaces Between Us: A Story of Neuroscience, Evolution, and Human Nature, page 55:

     We expected the neuron to shut off. After all, the visual stimulus was gone. But instead, the neuron kept on firing at a high rate. It chugged away as if it were busy telling the rest of the brain, “Yo, don't forget that thing near the cheek. It's probably still there.”

   • 2023 June 28, Lauren Coates, “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny review: Harrison Ford goes to the whip”, in AV Club‎^[1]:

     Still chugging away as a lecturer to less-than-enthusiastic students, Indiana is reluctantly pulled back into the world of swashbuckling adventure when his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Waller-Bridge) comes to him for aid in locating the mysterious Antikythera device.

4. To drink down steadily in large gulps.
   • 2010, Carin Davis, Life, Love, Lox: Real-World Advice for the Modern Jewish Girl:

     Remember kosher wine gets you just as drunk as the nonkosher stuff; so chug away, fellow Jews, chug away.

   • 2015, Xavier Cockroachal Damon, Love Is What Will Make an Immortal Die:

     The man chugged away on his bottle.

   • 2020, Milan Gupta, The Mariner's Grandson, page 21:

     And with that, Bob raised his glass, clinked with countless others, and chugged away.