plough through

read or work through something long and difficult with effort

C1

What does "plough through sth" mean?

To plough through something means to make slow, laborious progress through a large or dense body of work — reports, data, emails, legislation, or any material that demands sustained effort. The metaphor comes from agricultural ploughing: just as a plough forces its way heavily through thick soil, a person ploughing through work is pushing doggedly forward despite the difficulty and sheer volume. Crucially, the phrase always implies that the material is substantial or difficult — it would sound strange to use it for something quick or easy. It carries a strong sense of determination alongside struggle, and often appears when someone wants to convey that completing a task took considerable time and mental energy. Both 'plough through' (British English) and 'plow through' (American English) carry exactly the same meaning.

Examples

How to use it

plough through + object

The most common pattern: the subject works laboriously through a large body of material, which always follows 'through'.

The auditors spent the whole week ploughing through years of financial records.

plough through + it / them

Pronouns follow 'through' in the usual position — the verb cannot be separated.

The reading list looked enormous, but she ploughed through it in two weeks.

plough through + object + adverb (slowly / steadily / doggedly)

Adverbs that reinforce the sense of determined, effortful progress collocate naturally with this phrasal verb.

He doggedly ploughed through the dense technical manual, taking notes as he went.

plough through + object + time reference

Adding a time expression reinforces the slow, drawn-out nature of the effort.

She'd been ploughing through the backlog all morning and had barely made a dent.

plough through + object + purpose clause

A purpose clause (looking for, trying to find) frequently follows to explain why the effort is being made.

They ploughed through hundreds of survey responses, looking for patterns in the data.

Common Collocations

plough through paperworkplough through emailsplough through a reportplough through dataplough through a backlogplough through a reading list

Common Mistakes

Attempting to separate the verb

Unlike some phrasal verbs, 'plough through' cannot be separated — the object must always come after 'through', never between 'plough' and 'through'.

✗ She ploughed it all through before lunch.
✓ She ploughed through it all before lunch.
Using it for small or easy tasks

'Plough through' inherently implies that the material is large in volume or difficult to process — using it for something trivial creates an unnatural mismatch in meaning.

✗ I ploughed through the two-page summary in a couple of minutes.
✓ I ploughed through the 200-page report over the weekend.
Confusing it with 'wade through'

Both phrases describe dealing with large, difficult material, but 'wade through' foregrounds tedium, while 'plough through' foregrounds the sheer weight and effort involved — the two are close but not always interchangeable in tone.

Usage

This is British English spelling; in American English, write 'plow through'. Both are neutral in register and suitable for professional, academic, and everyday contexts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does 'plough through' always refer to documents and reading? Can it describe other kinds of work?

It most naturally refers to processing large amounts of written or data-based material — reports, emails, research, legislation, and so on. That said, it can extend to any demanding, volume-heavy task (such as ploughing through a backlog of meetings or a long to-do list), as long as there is a clear sense of slow, effortful progress through a large quantity.

Is 'plough through' British English? What should I write in American English?

Yes — 'plough through' uses the British English spelling of the verb. In American English, the standard spelling is 'plow through'. The meaning, grammar, and register are identical; the only difference is the spelling of 'plough/plow'.

Can 'plough through' be used in the passive?

It is rarely if ever used in the passive, and doing so would sound very unnatural. Because the whole point of the phrase is to describe the effort made by the person doing the work, the active form is almost always the right choice — the subject needs to be the one doing the ploughing.

Does 'plough through' have another meaning I should be aware of?

Yes — the same form can describe physical, forceful movement through space, such as a vehicle ploughing through mud or snow. That sense involves literal, physical progress rather than working through material. Context usually makes it clear which sense is meant: if the object is a text, data set, or task, it's the effortful-work sense; if it's a physical obstacle or space, it's the forceful-motion sense.

Can I use 'plough through' in a future tense?

The simple future works fine — for example, 'I'll plough through the reports this evening.' The future continuous ('I'll be ploughing through...') is grammatically possible but can sound slightly forced, so it's worth choosing a different construction if it feels awkward in context.

Ready to practise?

Practise 1,000+ English phrasal verbs with interactive gap-fill exercises.

Start Practising →