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William Hogarth's 1741 Enraged Musician, including a stooped grinder working his treadleWilliam Elmes's 1814 political cartoon "John Bull Bringing Bony's Nose to the Grindstone"
Etymology
From the literal action of intensely working a grindstone, whether powered by a treadle or waterwheel. The expression initially implied punishment or abusive management, forcing the worker into intense work, and was used in the anonymous 1557 translation of Erasmus's Merry Dialogue as a hyperbolic punishment threatened for an abusive husband. It was later adapted to forcing oneself into similarly intense effort.
1828, Lights & Shades of English Life, volume II, page 13:
People whose heads are a little up in the world, have no occasion to keep their nose to the grindstone.
1886 [1882], Henry James, The Point of View, London: Macmillan and Co.:
I travelled energetically; I went everywhere and saw everything; took as many letters as possible, and made as many acquaintances. In short, I held my nose to the grindstone.
2001 August 26, Garrison Keillor, “In Search of Lake Wobegon”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Thirty years ago, I lived in Stearns County with my wife and little boy in a rented farmhouse south of Freeport, an area of nose-to-the-grindstone German Catholics proud of their redneck reputation.
Usage notes
Variously placed after the verbs keep, put, bring, have, hold, &c. or used as a substantive adjective.