drudgery

[ druhj-uh-ree ]

noun

, plural drudg·er·ies.

1. menial, distasteful, dull, or hard work.

drudgery

/ ˈdrʌdʒərɪ /

noun

1. hard, menial, and monotonous work

Word History and Origins

Origin of drudgery¹

First recorded in 1540–50; drudge + -ery

Example Sentences

Rather, they hope to speed up programming and remove some of the drudgery.

From Singularity Hub 

In the past year, there has been a tendency to blame our tiredness on the drudgery of living through a pandemic — the persistent fear, the loneliness, the grief and the locked-down days that bleed one into another.

From Washington Post

In postwar Britain, a weariness with rationing and austerity helps to explain women’s delight in transformations and the idea of release from domestic drudgery.

From Time

Trusting that work to a robot means saving a human from drudgery on the best of days, and from tragedy on the worst ones.

From Popular-Science

The idea that fame could be an escape—from drudgery, dues-paying and, in no small number of workplaces, abuse—predates Instagram by at least a century.

From Time

We coo over how cute our cat is and minimize the drudgery of cleaning the litter box.

From The Daily Beast

Is it right to speak of “finding meaningful work” when available work might necessarily involve drudgery and worse?

From The Daily Beast

This single invention liberated countless millions from needless drudgery.

From The Daily Beast

That is said with zero disrespect for the hard work, and often drudgery, that those jobs entail.

From The Daily Beast

For many Afghan women, a life of violence, drudgery and ill health is the best they can expect.

From The Daily Beast

A world that has known five years of fighting has lost its taste for the honest drudgery of work.

From Project Gutenberg

Practice lends me great dexterity in the work, but the hours of drudgery drag with heavy heel.

From Project Gutenberg

He was of a white color, that seemed to fit him rather for rare festal occasions than for constant drudgery.

From Project Gutenberg

And with every day of such drudgery the heights of music and literature seemed further away and more unattainable.

From Project Gutenberg

All drudgery disappears in a rosy glow of unexpected, unique, and stimulating conditions.

From Project Gutenberg

When To Use

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.