Literal translation
to burst one's little lamb
Meaning
to work oneself to exhaustion
Explanation
This expression means to work oneself to exhaustion, to give everything to a task until worn out. The verb creba, used here intransitively, carries the sense of bursting, splitting, giving way under excessive effort or pressure. The word bedelet, not attested as an independent headword in our dictionaries, likely relates to bedigo, which names the ewe, in particular the yearling ewe: bedelet would then be a diminutive form, naming a lamb or a young animal of the sheep family. The image would thus evoke an animal driven to its physical limits, panting and about to give way under the load, transposed onto human labour to mean spending oneself without counting the cost, until physically spent. The register is familiar, used to describe particularly harsh, often physical work carried out with tenacity despite fatigue. In the absence of direct attestation of the word in our sources, this connection remains a reasonable hypothesis of meaning, and the expression is retained above all for its clearly identified overall sense.