From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishclaw your wayclaw your wayto try very hard to reach a place or position, using a lot of effort and determinationclaw your way up/along/back etc He clawed his way forward inch by inch. Benson clawed his way back into the lead. → claw
Examples from the Corpus
claw your way• He will probe unceasingly for loopholes by which to claw his way back to his prewar stature.• She was still clawing her way out of her first marriage, not thinking about the next, as I was.• This was the early-eighties and Britain was clawing its way out of recession on the back of a demand-led boom.• There was not a man present who had not stepped over bodies of rivals to claw his way to his present position.• She was there as her son clawed his way up from the post-coma cognitive level of a 2-year-old.• In the next seven years, Assad clawed his way up the ladder until he emerged as sole leader in 1970.• The vine clawed its way up the wall at the end.• You have to really work and claw your way up there. 