のける after て form

Question

I was reading モンスター while learning verbs and read this:

「君は院長のために、あのオペを絶対に成功させなきゃならなかったし、期待にこたえて見事成功させてのけた。」

On Jisho it says that のける can be used as an auxiliary verb behind a て form meaning 'to do well despite difficulties'. I have never seen this before. Could someone please provide me with example sentences and explain the grammar behind this?

Answer 1

Grammatically, it's a subsidiary verb. Semantically, 明鏡国語辞典 defines this as follows:

のける

《動詞連用形＋接続助詞「て」について》やりにくいことを平気で、またみごとにしてしまう意を表す。「外聞の悪いことを平然と言って―」「たった一晩で修復工事をやって―」

デジタル大辞泉's definition is almost the same:

動詞の連用形に接続助詞「て」を添えた形に付いて、やりにくいことをみごとに、また、思いきってやってしまう意を表す。「少ない日程で作業をやって―・ける」「言いたいことを相手構わず言って―・ける」

Here, やりにくいこと ("difficult thing to do") can be either something that is technically difficult or something that is socially/ethically inappropriate or questionable.

• When it is used with a technically difficult thing, it means "to really do ～", "to succeed in doing ～", etc. It sometimes (but not always) has the connotation of "easily" and used with words like 平然と, こともなげに, 当然のように, etc.
• When it is used with a ethically/socially questionable thing, it means "dare do ～", "to really do ～", "to have the courage to do ～", "to be bold enough to ～", "not to hesitate to do ～", etc. Can be used for both praising and scorning someone.

The subject is almost always a human. その車は1時間で東京まで走ってのけた sounds a little unnatural to me.

You can see many examples here: http://yourei.jp/%E3%81%A6%E3%81%AE%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B