Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Tedious, menial, or unpleasant work. synonym: work.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The labor of a drudge; ignoble, spiritless toil; hard work in servile or mechanical occupations.
  • noun Synonyms Labor, Toil, etc. See work, n.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of drudging; disagreeable and wearisome labor; ignoble or slavish toil.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun tedious, menial and exhausting work

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun hard monotonous routine work

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Having enough to live on, he has not been forced to work for bread; he has declined to subject himself to what he calls the drudgery of the profession, by which, I believe, he means the general work of a practising surgeon; and has found other employment.

    The Warden 2004

  • Having enough to live on, he has not been forced to work for bread; he has declined to subject himself to what he calls the drudgery of the profession, by which, I believe, he means the general work of a practising surgeon; and has found other employment.

    The Warden Anthony Trollope 1848

  • For these people, a management role which involves administrative drudgery is both a refuge, and a means for advancing one's career to a higher salary scale.

    Archive 2009-02-01 Gordon McCabe 2009

  • How much drudgery is involved in putting a centerpiece on the dining table?

    Archive 2008-05-01 2008

  • How much drudgery is involved in making a sandwich and a pot of tea?

    The Better Part 2008

  • How much drudgery is involved in putting a centerpiece on the dining table?

    The Better Part 2008

  • How much drudgery is involved in making a sandwich and a pot of tea?

    Archive 2008-05-01 2008

  • The “AI” approach is so positive it makes the other methods seem to wallow in drudgery of the problems.

    Walking with the Poor: a review 2006

  • Here in the Eastern Conference final, where half-court drudgery is dictated by a Detroit Pistons outfit that wants no part of sleek showmanship, NBA basketball becomes less an art than a painstaking process both to play and watch.

    USATODAY.com - Nets sweep road set from Pistons 2003

  • Therefore, I maintain that capacity for work, and even drudgery, is among the essentials of story-telling.

    The Art of the Story-Teller 1915

Comments

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  • "Many gardeners will agree that hand-weeding is not the terrible drudgery that it is often made out to be. Some people find in it a kind of soothing monotony. It leaves their minds free to develop the plot for their next novel or to perfect the brilliant repartee with which they should have encountered a relative's latest example of unreasonableness.

    - Christopher Lloyd, 'The Well-Tempered Garden', 1973.

    October 30, 2008