roll up one's sleeves

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roll up one's sleeves (third-person singular simple present rolls up one's sleeves, present participle rolling up one's sleeves, simple past and past participle rolled up one's sleeves)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see roll,‎ up,‎ one's,‎ sleeves.
2. (idiomatic) To prepare to work.
   • 2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes quoting Steve Bruce, “Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     "We could quite easily have folded today but thankfully they rolled up their sleeves and got back into it. We could even have won it. We had a couple of great opportunities but we just ran out of juice."

   • 2025 April 21, Peter Stanford, “Pope Francis obituary”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     TNo more pomp and ceremony, the new pope seemed to be saying, but sleeves rolled up and joining the fight for social and economic justice.

• at the coal face
• in the trenches