dirty work

American  

noun

1. disagreeable, often tedious tasks.

2. any illegal or dishonest dealing.

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dirty work Idioms  

1. An unpleasant, distasteful, or thankless task or job. For example, Jane complained that she had to do all the dirty work while her colleagues took long vacations. [First half of 1900s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dirty work

And then the dirty work for 2028 would begin.

From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2026

The large accounting firms typically rely on junior auditors to do much of the dirty work.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026

Cybersecurity experts are warning that artificial intelligence agents, widely considered the next frontier in the generative AI revolution, could wind up getting hijacked and doing the dirty work for hackers.

From Barron's ● Nov. 11, 2025

“The only enemy I have is peace,” she’ll say, managing to maintain an air of well-connected respectability while doing the dirty work.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2025

“While you were off having fun, I was doing the dirty work of defending your old faction, eliminating interfaction conflict...”

From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth