peg away

English

Verb

peg away (third-person singular simple present pegs away, present participle pegging away, simple past and past participle pegged away)

1. (informal) To keep working (at something).
   • 1915, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 37, in Of Human Bondage:

     ‘Art's the only thing I care for, I'm willing to give my whole life to it. It's only a question of sticking to it and pegging away.’

   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 296:

     In very rare cases, when the matrix just goes on pegging away automatically, the doctor can take advantage of that and ease out the second brat who then can be considered to be, say, three minutes younger [...].

2. (slang, archaic) To depart hastily; peg it; scram.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary