donkey work

don·key work

D d

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- UK Pronunciation
- UK IPA
- [dong-kee, dawng-, duhng- wurk]
- /ˈdɒŋ ki, ˈdɔŋ-, ˈdʌŋ- wɜrk/
- /ˈdɒŋ.ki wɜːk/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [dong-kee, dawng-, duhng- wurk]
- /ˈdɒŋ ki, ˈdɔŋ-, ˈdʌŋ- wɜrk/

Definitions of donkey work words

noun donkey work Informal. tedious, repetitious work; drudgery. 1
singular noun donkey work If you do the donkey work, you do the hard work or the less interesting part of the work that needs to be done. 0
noun donkey work groundwork 0
noun donkey work drudgery 0
noun donkey work hard work, esp. if routine or menial 0
noun donkey work (Idiomatic) Hard, boring, routine work. 0

See all 6 definitions of donkey work

Information block about the term

Origin of donkey work

First appearance:

before 1915

One of the 14% newest English words

First recorded in 1915-20

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Donkey work

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Donkey work

donkey work popularity

This term is known only to a narrow circle of people with rare knowledge. Only 7% of English native speakers know the meaning of this word.

According to our data most of word are more popular. This word is almost not used. It has a much more popular synonym.

donkey work usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for donkey work

noun donkey work

dirty work — disagreeable, often tedious tasks.
grunt work — work that is repetitious, often physically exhausting, and boring.
shitwork — bad work; tedious, badly-paid work

All 3 Synonyms of donkey work