Definitions

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

  • noun Work requiring a spade.
  • noun Preparatory work necessary for a project or activity.

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

  • noun Work done by digging with a spade.
  • noun figuratively Work done in preparation for something else.

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

  • noun dull or routine preliminary work preparing for an undertaking

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

spade + work

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Examples

  • At her Sydney farewell in 1990, she thanked Richard Bonynge – her husband, conductor and vocal trainer – for his "spadework", as if she were a shrub that required mulching.

    Dame Joan Sutherland: an appreciation Peter Conrad 2010

  • No, not funny, but for what its worth, Rush was/is playing off the fact that Hillary said that Obama has not done the "spadework" necessary to be president on the Today show.

    Your Right Hand Thief 2008

  • Bedding and Saul were no longer needed to track down registered owners of BMW X5's and were back at their usual assignment: post-crime canvassing, "spadework," as it was called.

    The Stone Monkey Deaver, Jeffery 2002

  • Not enough "spadework" had been done to convert the Shaka Day celebrations from a tribal to a "national affair", President Nelson

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1994

  • Prof Hindson said much "spadework" had to be done between the warring factions, including the holding of separate meetings in an attempt to establish a joint agenda for the resumption of peace talks.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1992

  • And he failed to perform the kind of spadework necessary to build an opposition party.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • TMZ, the popular celebrity ambush TV show and Web site, is doing Parents TV Council's spadework for it, creating a master list to find out exactly which advertisers on MTV's sexy teen-cast "Skins" are, and which are not, pulling their plugs from the sexy teen MTV series.

    H&R Block shocked to learn its ad ran in MTV's sexy teen series "Skins" Lisa de Moraes 2011

  • Previous ranking: 5 3. Newt Gingrich: For months we've been hearing that Gingrich has been doing lots of under-the-radar spadework in Iowa.

    Skipping Iowa Chris Cillizza 2011

  • Swift "offers more than mere technical assistance," says Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which has done most of the spadework on the issue.

    Swift Sanctions on Iran 2012

  • As a result of detailed spadework, ATF and Justice Department officials say, those cases now include strong evidence against suspected recipients of the contraband weapons.

    U.S. let guns fall into drug cartels' hands, files show 2011

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