drudgery
nounUS, UK /ˈdɹʌd͡ʒəɹi/
Etymology From drudge (“person who works in a low servile job”) + -ery (suffix meaning ‘the art, craft, or practice of’ forming nouns).
1
Exhausting, menial, and tedious work.
- What laier much better then there, / or cheaper (thereon to doo well?) / What drudgerie more any where / lesse good thereof where can ye tell? / What gotten by Sommer is seene: / in Winter is eaten vp cleene.1878, Thomas Tusser, “A Comparison betweene Champion Countrie and Seuerall”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam] Payne, Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 141:
- I may not dure this female drudgerie, / To ſea Æneas, finde out Italy.1594, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nash[e], The Tragedie of Dido Queene of Carthage: […], London: […] Widdowe Orwin, for Thomas Woodcocke, […], →OCLC, Act IV, signature E3, recto:
4 more examples
- I was prickt wel enough before, and you could haue let me alone, my old dame will be vndone now for one to doe her husbandrie, and her drudgery, you need not to haue prickt me, there are other men fitter to go out then I.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- Here he met with a Drudgerie almoſt invincible, and if we add the Task to the Time, it is enough to make a Man old.1652, “A Short Advertisement to the Reader”, in Eugenius Philalethes [i.e., Thomas Vaughan], transl., The Fame and Confession of the Fraternity of the R: C: Commonly, of the Rosie Cross. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for Giles Calvert, […], →OCLC, page 58:
- In the coarſe Drudgeries, and Sinks of Senſe, / Your Souls have quite worn out the Make of Heav'n, / By Vice new-caſt, and Creatures of your own: […]1744, [Edward Young], “Night the Seventh. Being the Second Part of The Infidel Reclaimed. Containing the Nature, Proof, and Importance, of Immortality.”, in The Complaint. Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality, London: […] G[eorge] Hawkins, […]; [a]nd sold by M[ary] Cooper, […], →OCLC, page 60:
- While we ſtudy with Attention the Vanity of human Life, and turn all our Thoughts on the empty and tranſitory Nature of Riches and Honours, we are, perhaps, all the while flattering our natural Indolence, which, hating the Buſtle of the World, and Drudgery of Buſineſs, ſeeks a Pretext of Reaſon, to give itſelf a full and uncontroul'd Indulgence.1748, [David Hume], “Essay V. Sceptical Solution of These Doubts.”, in Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, part I, pages 69–70:
- Synonyms
- chores, drudgery, drudgework, fatigue, razzmatazz, scut, scutwork, swink, toil
- Derived terms
- drudgerous, drudgery-ridden