schlep

American  

[shlep] / ʃlɛp /

Also schlepp sometimes shlep,

verb (used with object)

Slang.

schlepped, schlepping

1. to carry; lug.

   to schlep an umbrella on a sunny day.

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verb (used without object)

Slang.

schlepped, schlepping

1. to move slowly, awkwardly, or tediously.

   We schlepped from store to store all day.

noun

Slang.

1. Also schlepper. someone or something that is tedious, slow, or awkward.

schlep British  

/ ʃlɛp /

verb

1. to drag or lug (oneself or an object) with difficulty

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noun

1. a stupid or clumsy person

2. an arduous journey or procedure

Etymology

Origin of schlep

First recorded in 1910–15; from Yiddish shlepn “to pull, drag, (intransitive) trudge,” from German schleppen, “to draw, tug, haul”; akin to slip ¹, slippery

Explanation

When you schlep something, you lug or carry it with difficulty. If your taxi can't make it up an icy hill, you might have to schlep your groceries all the way up to your house. If you schlep something, it's either awkward or heavy — or both. You have to pull or drag or tug things when you schlep them. You can also describe an awkward, long, or rough trip as a schlep: "It's such a schlep to get down Grandma's road during mud season." The word has a Yiddish root, shlepen, "to drag," from the Germanic sleifen, also "to drag."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

schlep schlepped schlepping

He’s about to schlep through a 162-game season with them: plane trips, batting practice, 1 a.m. room service steak dinners in antiseptic luxury hotels.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026

She still laughs about it now, whispering to my dad back then, half-horrified, half-amused: “BYOM? They want us to schlep raw meat to their house. Is that… something people do?”

From Salon ● Jan. 27, 2026

Yiddish, the language spoken by Ashkenazi Jews across Europe before the Holocaust, is now perhaps best known to many English speakers through words such as "schlep", "klutz" and "chutzpah".

From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2025

If there’s a house by Lautner or Neutra or Frank Lloyd Wright, sometimes we’ll take a schlep just for the house, to even just see from the street.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2025

“He must’ve paid really well for you to schlep all the way out here whenever you found something nice,” I said as we entered the marshy gloom.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

I schlepped in oversized bags of flour and sugar to make cranberry-orange and pumpkin-chocolate loaves for Christmas—leaving a fine dusting of powder in the pantry.

From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2026

Lader, 40, described "grabbing babies who were being schlepped across the street, and finding parents who were hysterical that their kids weren't here."

From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026

He went on tours with me, built my bed and schlepped all my clothes over from Hollywood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2026

He and his wife have schlepped materials home by train, “five big valises recently from Prague.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026

Then he was schlepped out to the hospital on an emergency helicopter ride because he was close to death … but at the hospital, there he was, sitting at a desk again, doing president stuff.

From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2022

Maybe the best way to understand what Dudamel has meant to L.A. and what L.A. has meant to Dudamel was his unimaginable schlepping of the L.A.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

But opportunities like last week’s flogging of the new Porsche 911 Turbo S on Circuito Ascari are rare and require considerable schlepping.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025

No blue blood wants to fake excitement about schlepping to the Pop-Tart Bowl, no offense to those sentient Pop-Tarts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025

In other words, employees who may give up a good chunk of their pay to work from home might actually be getting paid more than those who are schlepping to the office.

From Salon ● Feb. 27, 2025

And in her defense, she said it had been a long, wet day schlepping through monsoon floods.

From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon