drudge
/drʌdʤ/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun:
- A person who does hard, menial, or dull work: A "drudge" is someone who performs tedious, uninteresting, or physically demanding tasks, often for long hours and with little recognition or reward.
- A person who works very hard, especially at boring tasks: This meaning emphasizes the laborious and often monotonous nature of the work.
Verb (intransitive):
- To do hard, menial, or dull work: To "drudge" means to toil or labor persistently at tedious, difficult, or unpleasant tasks.
Examples of Usage
Noun:
- He felt like a mere drudge in the vast office, filing papers all day.
- The kitchen drudge was up before dawn to light the fires and start the cleaning.
Verb:
- She had to drudge through hundreds of pages of legal documents.
- For years, he drudged in the factory without hope of promotion.
Advanced Usage
- "To drudge away (at something)": To work persistently and laboriously on a task.
- He was drudging away at his thesis every night for months.
Variants and Related Words
- Drudgery (noun): Hard, menial, or dull work.
- The job involved endless drudgery.
- Drudging (adjective): Characterized by or involving drudgery.
- He escaped his drudging routine with a weekend trip.
Synonyms
- Noun: Menial, laborer, toiler, slave, workhorse, grunt.
- Verb: Toil, labor, grind, slog, plod.
Related Phrasal Verbs
- Drudge away: To work hard and continuously at something tedious (often followed by "at").
- She drudged away at the accounts until they were perfect.
Related Idioms
- No specific idiom is centered solely on the word "drudge." The concept is often expressed in phrases like "a life of drudgery" or "to be stuck in a drudge's job."
Noun
- a laborer who is obliged to do menial work
- one who works hard at boring tasks
Verb
- work hard
- She was digging away at her math homework
- Lexicographers drudge all day long