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View synonyms for dirty work

dirty work

noun

  1. disagreeable, often tedious tasks.
  2. any illegal or dishonest dealing.


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Idioms and Phrases

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

But the message these pardons will send is clear: If you have wealth and power you are entitled to be above the law and any followers who do your dirty work can act outside the law.

From Salon

Trump may be a striver, but his biggest success is to get others to do his dirty work for him.

From Salon

Trump may be a striver, but his biggest success is to get others to do his dirty work for him.

From Salon

Russian state actors turned to proxies, such as private intelligence operatives, to do "their dirty work", but this impacted the professionalism of their operations and made them easier to disrupt.

From BBC

The incident prompted denunciations from rights groups who have long condemned Mexican authorities for doing what they call “America’s dirty work” by detaining U.S.-bound migrants and often transporting them back to southern Mexico.

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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.

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