The verb travailler means ‘to work’; arracher, also a verb, means to ‘snatch’, ‘rip off’ or ‘tear off’; and pied is French for ‘foot’. Travailler d’arrache-pied directly translates as ‘to work of snatch-foot’, or ‘working so hard that you (figuratively) tear your foot off’. The current government has used it about the Covid-19 vaccination scheme, which came off to a slow start before speeding up. Le gouvernement travaille d’arrache-pied pour mettre en place des vaccinodromes et accelerer la vaccination Covid-19. – The government is working flat out to set up mass vaccination centres and speed up Covid-19 vaccination.

Source: The Local March 29, 2021 12:00 UTC