work like a dog/donkey/cow

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duopixel

New Member
Mexican Spanish
Hey all, I'm planning to make a diagram of how we refer to animals when working hard, I'll link it here when it's done. This is what I've figured out so far:

English: "work like a dog/beaver"
Spanish: "working like a donkey/mule"
Chineese: "working like a cow"
French "working like an ox(?)"

If you think your language might be country specific, please specify it.

Thanks!
 
    • In Hebrew we use donkey (לעבוד כמו חמור, la'avod kmo khamor, to work like a donkey), or, more colloquially and less commonly, dog (מעבידים אותו כמו כלב, ma'avidim 'oto kmo kelev, they make him work like a dog).
     
    Russian:
    "работать как вол" - [rʌbotət' kʌk vol] - "to work like an ox"
    "работать как лошадь" - [rʌbotət' kʌk loʂət'] - "to work like a horse"
    (' - a sign of palatalization here, stresses are marked with bold font)

    P.S.: Also an interesting variant "ишачить" [ɪʂaʨit'] exists; literally it means something like a verb "to donkey" :) (i.e. - to work like a donkey). The variant "работать как ишак" [rʌbotət' kək əʂak], "to work like a donkey", is possible as well. I must mention that the word "ишак" isn't a natural Russian word for a donkey ("осёл"), but loaned from Turkic languages, and it is impossible to say "работать как осёл".
     
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    Awwal12 said:
    Russian:

    "работать как лошадь" - "to work like a horse"
    Click to expand...
    Strange enough that Russians are "working like a horse", but "getting tired as a dog"...

    Actually, both idioms "to work like a horse/ox" are loaned from the Bible - as well as in many other languages.
     
    Czech:

    dřít jako mezek to work hard like hinny
    dřít means "work hard"
    hinny is hybrid between donkey-female and horse-male

    But nowadays it's a little bit archaic saying.
     
    Serbian:

    raditi kao konj = to work like a horse, the most common
    kao pas = like a dog, somewhat less common
    kao magarac = like a donkey, less common
    kao mazga = like a hinny, the least common, only for women
     
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    duopixel said:
    English: "work like a dog/beaver"
    Click to expand...

    I've never heard of "work like a beaver" (maybe "busy as a beaver"). I've heard "work like a dog", but I think that in the US at least, "work like a horse" is more common. We do say "dog-tired", though!
     
    I am afraid that the old good Czech saying "to work (hard) like a hinny" is not in use anymore. I found only a few occurrences by Google.

    Nowadays the most common saying of the same meaning is not politically correct.

    Makám jak barevnej. (12,400 occurrences on the net, for the 1st pers. sing. merely)

    It means: I work like a coloured.
     
    bibax said:
    Nowadays the most common saying of the same meaning is not politically correct.

    Makám jak barevnej. (12,400 occurrences on the net, for the 1st pers. sing. merely)

    It means: I work like a coloured.
    Click to expand...

    Hello, I am not sure but do you use: dřít jako kůň? [like a horse]. Maybe I have heard it. Thanks.
     
    bibax said:
    I am afraid that the old good Czech saying "to work (hard) like a hinny" is not in use anymore. I found only a few occurrences by Google.

    Nowadays the most common saying of the same meaning is not politically correct.

    Makám jak barevnej. (12,400 occurrences on the net, for the 1st pers. sing. merely)

    It means: I work like a coloured.
    Click to expand...

    Here we say raditi kao crnac=to work like a black man.
     
    In Turkish, 3 ways to say it:

    Köpek gibi çalışıyorum - I'm working like a dog
    Eşek gibi çalışıyorum - I'm working like a donkey
    Hayvan gibi çalışıyorum - I'm working like an animal.
     
    I've never heard of "work like a beaver" (maybe "busy as a beaver"). I've heard "work like a dog", but I think that in the US at least, "work like a horse" is more common. We do say "dog-tired", though!
    Click to expand...
    In British English the most common phrase is "It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog ...".

    I heard it a million times in the radio. :)
     
    In Polish it would be most common to say:

    Haruję jak wół. - I work like an ox.
    harować jak wół - to work like an ox

    Harować in fact means to work very hard (I don't know what would be the most suitable one-word equivalent in English) while simple to work is pracować.

    Sometimes, but rather rarely, is also possible to hear politically suspected
    harować jak Murzyn (to work like a Negro - not like a nigger for Murzyn is in Polish neutral and commonly used word while the offensive one would be czarnuch).
     
    Finnish: Tekee töitä* kuin hullu. Works like a madman. :)

    I tried to find a suitable animal metaphor on Google, and found Tekee töitä kuin hevonen (works like a horse), but I've never heard of this. I'm sure hullu is way more common.

    _____________
    * The verb can be changed into a more descriptive one, for example rehkii kuin hullu.
     
    Would you think that comparison is fairly old, Sakvaka? Or have you always had madmen ? ;-) Or maybe it is not that strange: in my dialect one can 'werken lijk zot' (work like (a) mad(man)), but do not use that in standard Dutch ('zot' = 'gek').
     
    In Czech there's also works like fool Pracuje jak blázen

    In fact, it's much more common than other Czech expressions which were meaned in this thread.
     
    ThomasK said:
    Would you think that comparison is fairly old, Sakvaka? Or have you always had madmen ? ;-) Or maybe it is not that strange: in my dialect one can 'werken lijk zot' (work like (a) mad(man)), but do not use that in standard Dutch ('zot' = 'gek').
    Click to expand...

    How should we define "fairly old", if the written history of Finnish begins in the 16th century? ;) I think it could be at least hundred years old, but I have no proofs, as you can imagine.

    I forgot: it may as well have been taken from the saying Hullu paljon työtä tekee, viisas pääsee vähemmällä. A foolish person works a lot, a wise person gets by more easily.
     
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    That is quite an interesting addition indeed. With us too it means too much, but it does not really mean foolishly, strictly speaking.

    My question about age ;-) was not about 150 years, or something, but rather: have you always heard that expression, or only recently?
     
    I've heard work like a beaver / horse / mule plenty of times in the UK. I'm not so familiar with work like a dog.
    Interestingly we also refer to 'doing the donkey work'.
     
    Finnish dictionary has raataa kuin juhta "to work hard like a beast of burden". I don't remember if I have ever heard that. Raataa means "to work really hard" (from Russian страдать (stradat') "to suffer").
     
    Some Bulgarian expressions:
    Work like an ox
    Work like a bee / ant (obviously different connotation)
    Strong as a bull
    Meek as a lamb
    Run like a horse
    Roar like a donkey
    Stubborn as a donkey
    Stupid like a sheep
    Dumb/silent as a fish
    Faithful as a dog
    Evil as a dog
    Wailing like a dog
    Hungry as a wolf / dog
    Beaten like a dog
    Eat like a pig
    Drunk as a swine
    Cowardly like a rabbit
    Poor like a church mouse
    Struggle like a pig with a pumpkin
    Singing as a nightingale
    Naked / poor as a louse
    Remember like an elephant
    Sleep like a slaughtered (yeah...)
     
    TracyS221 said:
    I'm not so familiar with work like a dog.
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    sound shift said:
    Where I live, people don't normally say "to work like a" + name of a particular animal (unlike the the Beatles and their "I've been working like a dog").
    Click to expand...
    Interestingly it is probably the first English idiom I ever heard and [somewhat later] understood. The English movies were usually dubbed. The Hard Day's Night was among few exceptions. You can hear "working like a dog" in the very beginning of the film in the first couplet.

    I understand that the "working like a dog" could be just for the rhyme with "sleeping like a log".
     
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    German:

    fleißig wie eine Biene - hard working like a bee
    schuften wie ein Ochse - to toil like an ox
    sich mit etwas abeseln - to carry something very heavy (like a donkey)
    emsig (adj. derivation of Ameise) - diligent/hard-working (like an ant)
     
    In Chinese, "working like a bufflalo/cow (same word)" or sometimes "ant", "bee" is usually a compliment.
    However, to mean one is exhausted and even pathetic because of hard-work (or anything), people use "dog".
     
    ilocas2 said:
    another Czech one:

    dře jako Bulhar     - works like a Bulgarian
    Click to expand...

    There is an old-fashioned British phrase: to work like a Trojan (to work very hard). But I doubt if it is used nowadays.

    Messquito said:
    others include ants, bees,
    Click to expand...

    Frieder said:
    fleißig wie eine Biene - hard working like a bee
    Click to expand...

    SuperXW said:
    In Chinese, "working like "ant", "bee" is usually a compliment.
    Click to expand...
    Russian also has a phrase with a bee:
    тружусь как пчёлка (I'm working hard like a bee)
     
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    duopixel said:
    French "working like an ox(?)"
    Click to expand...

    weirdly, I'm not sure any of those are that common, I only found some people talking about :

    "travailler comme un chien" /work like a dog
    "travailler comme une bête" /work like a beast (the most common of them all I'd say)
    "travailler comme un boeuf" /work like an ox

    there are others with work like a... but they aren't about animals.
    maybe I didn't look well enough though...
     
    In Tamil(Indian),

    to work like a cow/ox is used for hard working.
    to work like a dog seen as work like a slave.
    :)
     
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