Knuckle down means start working or studying seriously and stop getting distracted: after lunch, we knuckled down to the calculations. It's informal and often a call to action: it's time to knuckle down. A knuckle is a finger joint, but nobody's fighting. A close synonym is buckle down.
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knuckle down; knuckle down to work / studying
- After lunch, we knuckled down to the calculations.
- It's time to knuckle down and finish the costumes.
- She knuckled down to studying once the house was quiet.
What changed
First versionYesterday we knuckled down on the final report.
RevisionYesterday we knuckled down to the final report.
Work on and focus on make on feel natural: knuckled down on the report. But the task is introduced by to: knuckled down to the final report. After to comes a noun or an -ing verb: knuckle down to studying.
Start work simply means begin working. Knuckle down means get serious and drop every distraction: I finally knuckled down to my thesis. Focus on means concentrate on something specific, not necessarily after putting it off.
Your turn
Complete the expression: After lunch, we knuckled down ___ the calculations.
Show the answer
to — The task you get down to is introduced by to: knuckled down to the calculations. On comes from work on and focus on, but it doesn't fit here.
Describe how you finally knuckled down to a hard task you'd been putting off.
Once the visitors had left, I knuckled down to checking the final set of drawings.
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