BANGING AWAY Synonyms: 85 Similar and Opposite Words

banging away

verb

present participle of bang away

as in struggling

to devote serious and sustained effort the design team has been banging away at that project for months

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of banging away 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for banging away

Verb

Small businesses are struggling to hire, with 62% trying to fill positions but 84% unable to find qualified applicants, revealing a significant skills gap.

— Sarah Hernholm, Forbes.com, 12 July 2026
The country is currently struggling with unemployment of around 8%, the UN estimates, and inflation that is running at what the World Bank estimates to be more than 40%.

— Frederik Pleitgen, CNN Money, 11 July 2026

Definition of struggling

Verb

But others are still at work, laboring under a new collective bargaining agreement with another labor organization, the International Longshoremen’s Association.

— Talia Soglin, Chicago Tribune, 5 July 2026
The infant had been trapped for almost three days; a team of rescuers from Fairfax, Virginia, had been laboring to reach the boy, who was nine months old, for at least six hours.

— Armando Ledezma, New Yorker, 30 June 2026

Definition of laboring

Verb

More than 1,100 competitors striving to make it to the top of the country’s largest seven-day table tennis tournament will compete through July 9 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.

— Doug Duran, Mercury News, 7 July 2026
However, labs worldwide are striving to build quantum computers with enough qubits—the quantum equivalent of the bits underlying classical computing—to execute such attacks.

— IEEE Spectrum, IEEE Spectrum, 7 July 2026

Definition of striving

Verb

So Ohashi started working with a personal trainer, lifting weights for three hours a day for four days a week.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 10 July 2026
Belichick divided offensive coordinator duties between longtime assistant Matt Particia, who’d primarily been a defensive coach, and Joe Judge, who was working with New England’s special teams.

— Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 10 July 2026

Definition of working

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“Banging away.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/banging%20away. Accessed 16 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of banging away

verb

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