noun
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hard or unpleasant work
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a rare word for piecework
Etymology
Origin of taskwork
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The vast public structures of the later kings were comparable to the taskwork of the builders of the Egyptian pyramids, and they still strike us with astonishment, and surprise.
From Stories of the Olden Time (Historical Series—Book IV Part I) by Various
In the midst of all the hardships of his younger time, as afterwards in the midst of crushing Herculean taskwork, he was saved from moral ruin by the inexhaustible geniality and expansiveness of his affections.
From Diderot and the Encyclopædists (Vol 1 of 2) by Morley, John
Men are not what they seem to the outward eye—mere machines moving about in customary occupations—productive labourers of food and wearing apparel—slaves from morn to night at taskwork set them by the Wealth of Nations.
From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (of 2) by Wilson, John Lyde
For most men in a brazen prison live, Where, in the sun's hot eye, With heads bent o'er their toil, they languidly 40Their lives to some unmeaning taskwork give, Dreaming of nought beyond their prison-wall.
From Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems by Arnold, Matthew
Merely thou saidst: "At set of sun My humble taskwork will be done; And through the twilight street Come back to view my jewels, when Pattering through the throng of men Go merry schoolboys' feet."
From Ionica by Cory, William (AKA William Johnson)
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.
