digging (away)

verb

present participle of dig (away)
as in struggling
to devote serious and sustained effort it took days of digging away at the subject, but he understands it thoroughly now

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for digging (away)
  1. struggling
  2. laboring
  3. striving
  4. working
  5. banging away
Verb
  • Her family has been struggling after her husband lost his job as a motorcycle rider and crossed the border into neighboring Niger to look for work.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 19 July 2026
  • But he was lifted in the fourth inning, forcing Kotsay toward the team’s struggling bullpen earlier than expected.
    — Chris Biderman, Sacbee.com, 18 July 2026
Definition of struggling
Verb
  • Since the Computing Community Consortium hosted its first conference on thermodynamic computing in 2019, a small community of researchers has been laboring to put it into practice.
    — Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 15 July 2026
  • 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
Definition of laboring
Verb
  • There was so much striving, by individuals and their teams, striving for the World Cup trophy and striving against every structural indecency that conspired to compromise the game’s integrity.
    — Jerry Brewer, New York Times, 20 July 2026
  • Democrats have this one chance to repudiate the democratic socialists who are striving to define and control their party.
    — Colin Pascal, Baltimore Sun, 20 July 2026
Definition of striving
Verb
  • For the lifelong dancer, working with choreographer Kenny Ortega was a dream come true.
    — Andrea Clement, AJC.com, 17 July 2026
  • Dolce & Gabbana obviously got there first and have been working with the soccer celebrity for some years now.
    — Dylan Jones, Robb Report, 16 July 2026
Definition of working
Verb
  • 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
Definition of banging away
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.

Browse Nearby Words

digging
digging (away)
digging in
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Cite this Entry

“Digging (away).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/digging%20%28away%29. Accessed 21 Jul. 2026.

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