Meaning
To work at something with maximum physical or mental effort; to throw all your energy into a task. Usually addressed to someone as an exhortation to try harder, and it still carries a strong association with hard manual work such as lifting, digging or hauling, though it is freely used of any demanding job. Informal and encouraging; still evokes physical effort even when the task is mental. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms dates the expression to 1882 and describes it as alluding to physical labour involving the strength of the back. The image needs no reconstruction: in lifting, digging, hauling or rowing, bracing and flexing the back is what converts effort into force, so putting your back into the work became shorthand for total exertion. The OED likewise lists 'to put one's back into' among the idiomatic phrases of the verb 'put'. Collins glosses 'back' in this construction as ability for labour, effort or endurance, illustrating it with 'He put his back into the task'.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- put one's back into it
- put your back into
- put your back into the job
- put your backs into it
Usage Examples
- If we all put our backs into it, the hall will be cleared before the rehearsal.
- She put her back into the last kilometre and overtook the race leader.
- He scrubbed the deck as if the bosun had told him to put his back into it.