as in to buckle (down)
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for apply (oneself)
Verb
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But for a Cy Young candidate who, as part of a six-man rotation, won’t pitch in as many games as his competition, efficiency matters.—
Maddie Lee,
Los Angeles Times,
4 June 2026 -
Trip Harriss, who managed the Falcon 9 fleet operations in 2016, said everyone at the company pitched in to support the investigation and then the reconstruction of the SLC-40 pad.—
Eric Berger,
ArsTechnica,
3 June 2026
Verb
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One notable aspect of sleepmaxxing is that those who dig in tend to view sleep more as a performance tool than as a period of rest.—
Sharon Brandwein,
USA Today,
2 June 2026
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In the new film, Yana Radeva stars as an archaeologist working on a dig in Svilengrad, a small town on the Bulgarian border.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
28 May 2026
Verb
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Magadan had a deadly reputation in the Stalin era, as a hub for Gulag mines where political prisoners slaved sometimes to death and produced gold and other minerals in the process.—
Ian Frazier,
New Yorker,
19 Jan. 2026
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Po’s journey begins while slaving away at his boring noodle job on the day the Dragon Warrior is to be chosen.—
Skyler Trepel,
Entertainment Weekly,
25 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Teams will use the five-week gap between the races in Japan and Miami to knuckle down at their factories and develop car upgrades that could boost their fortunes upon returning to the track in May.—
Luke Smith,
New York Times,
8 Apr. 2026
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In survival mode, many brands have been forced to knuckle down and fortify their business strategies, in hopes of setting them up for success against a difficult backdrop.—
Madeleine Schulz,
Vogue,
10 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The Thunder labored through a 111-103 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday in a decisive Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.—
Mark Medina,
Forbes.com,
31 May 2026
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With evacuation shelters reaching capacity as more than 40,000 people were asked to leave their homes, officials laboring to prevent an explosion at a crippled chemical tank in Garden Grove reported tentative progress Sunday in ending the crisis.—
Deborah Netburn,
Los Angeles Times,
24 May 2026
Verb
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Blow-dry bangs away from the face with a round brush or Velcro rollers for effortless-looking volume.—
Ariel Wodarcyk,
InStyle,
7 Apr. 2026
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Brian Cashman gets it all the time, but good, from Yankee fans; for them, banging away at Cashman on social media feels like the real national pastime.—
Mike Lupica,
New York Daily News,
16 Aug. 2025
Verb
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As families struggle with rising costs, healthcare affordability has emerged as a defining issue heading into the midterms.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
2 June 2026
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The back-to-back deals offer one of the clearest signals yet that Abel is prepared to put Berkshire’s enormous balance sheet to work after years of criticism that the company had become too cautious and was struggling to find opportunities large enough to move the needle.—
Yun Li,
CNBC,
2 June 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Apply (oneself).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apply%20%28oneself%29. Accessed 4 Jun. 2026.
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