legwork

[ leg-wurk ]

noun

1. work or research involving extensive walking or traveling about, usually away from one's office, as in gathering data for a book, a legal action, etc.
2. action of the legs as executed by an athlete, dancer, etc.

legwork

/ ˈlɛɡˌwɜːk /

noun

1. informal.
   work that involves travelling on foot or as if on foot

Word History and Origins

Origin of legwork¹

An Americanism dating back to 1890–95; leg + work

Example Sentences

Instead, hard legwork and reaching out to past voters got it done.

From The Daily Beast

Of course, cracking this market will require some costly legwork.

From The Daily Beast

To its credit, the Obama administration has already begun some of this legwork.

From The Daily Beast

Police enthusiasm dropped to the norm of what they called legwork.

From Project Gutenberg

Me, Bill Rawlins, I do the legwork, and tend to the business details.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• audit
• checking
• checkup
• cross-examination
• diagnosis
• experiment
• exploration
• inquiry
• inspection
• interrogation
• investigation
• observation
• probe
• questioning
• questionnaire
• raid
• research
• review
• scan
• scrutiny