buckle down

From buckle + down.

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buckle down (third-person singular simple present buckles down, present participle buckling down, simple past and past participle buckled down)

1. (intransitive, originally US, idiomatic) To apply oneself to study, or a task or work; to focus on or take a serious attitude towards something; to put forth the needed effort.

   Synonym: buckle to

   If he would buckle down and do his homework, he could be an excellent student.

   • 1934 October 5, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XXII, in Right Ho, Jeeves, London: Herbert Jenkins […], →OCLC, page 280:

     I confess that the recollection of what this bell could do when it buckled down to it gave me pause as I stood that night at 12.30 p.m. prompt beside the outhouse where it was located.

• buckle to
• buckle up

• hunker down
• knuckle down