idiom / phrasal verb · neutral
break one's back
/breɪk wʌnz bæk/break·ones·BACK
to work extremely hard (often physically or with great effort).
Examples
“My parents broke their backs to pay for my education.”
“She broke her back renovating the old house, but it was worth it.”
“Students often break their backs during exam season.”
Band 8 sentence
“Many immigrants broke their backs for years, laying the foundations of today's economy.”
Collocations
- broke his/her back to
- break their backs during
Word family
Common mistakes
I break my back to pay for school.→I broke my back to pay for school.
break my back for→break my back to
Say it for a higher band
5work hard→6work very hard→7+break one's back
Synonyms
work one's fingers to the bone
work hard
Easily confused
work one's fingers to the bone
“She worked her fingers to the bone to provide for her family.”
Related words
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In break …
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