drudgery
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What are other ways to say drudgery?
Drudgery refers to menial, distasteful, or hard work. How is drudgery different from work, labor, or toil? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of drudgery
Explanation
If you’ve ever had to do the laundry, wash the dishes, make the meals, change the bedding, vacuum the house, and clean the bathrooms day after day, you’ve experienced drudgery. Drudgery is hard, mindless, backbreaking work. When you say the word drudgery, you can almost feel the hard, plodding work that it describes. You have to put some effort into saying the dr- sound. Then, as soon as you get through the breathy -u-, you’ve got two more hard sounds in -dg- and -er- before you get another break with the final vowel sound. Just as you might drag yourself doing those repetitive, grinding chores, you have to drag your way through pronouncing the word.
Vocabulary lists containing drudgery
Labor Day Lexicon: Words That Put You To Work
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The Things They Carried
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Again, then, I say, Let us sing a hallelujah and make a fresh beatitude: Blessed be Drudgery!
From Vocal Expression A Class-book of Voice Training and Interpretation by Everts, Katherine Jewell
He added with equal candour: "Drudgery great, but to an intelligent man the pickings may be considerable."
From Tommy and Grizel by Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
For to quiet and satisfy all scrupulous Consciences, is as great a Drudgery as it is to write in Defence of Miracles.
From A Letter to Dion by Viner, Jacob
If you will drop us a postal card, we will send you at once, absolutely free, our booklet entitled, "From Disease, Poverty and Drudgery to Health, Wealth, Power and Success."
From The Right Knock A Story by Van-Anderson, Helen
Blessed be Drudgery His first move towards being of use was when some of our children had small-pox and were put up in a half-finished room which was being built.
From Lotus Buds by Carmichael, Amy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.