peg away

By night she pegged away at her gin.

“I suppose you are going to college soon? I see you pegging away at your books, no, I mean studying hard.”

"Let's peg away at this till the chops come," cried Mr. Dundyke.

But not the most celebrated of these attacks on the Empire created anything like the sensation which Rochefort has succeeded in creating by the constant "pegging away" of his bitter, envenomed, and unscrupulous pen.

Well, he's pegging away at that railroad of his, wasting valuable time.