drudge

drudge
   Used of someone who slaves away at uninteresting and unrewarding work, a hack. Dr Johnson famously defined ‘lexicographer’ in his Dictionary as ‘a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words’. Writers of dictionaries have wryly repeated that ‘harmless drudge’ phrase ever since. It is permissible for the present dictionary writer to do so because ‘you little drudge’ occurs as a vocative in The Moonflower Vine, by Jetta Carleton: ‘You little drudge - don’t you know how to do anything but work?’

A dictionary of epithets and terms of address . . 2015.

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  • Drudge — Drudge, v. t. To consume laboriously; with away. [1913 Webster] Rise to our toils and drudge away the day. Otway. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Drudge — Drudge, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Drudged}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Drudging}.] [OE. druggen; prob not akin to E. drag, v. t., but fr. Celtic; cf. Ir. drugaire a slave or drudge.] To perform menial work; to labor in mean or unpleasant offices with toil and… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Drudge — Drudge, n. One who drudges; one who works hard in servile employment; a mental servant. Milton. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • drudge — [drʌdʒ] n someone who does hard boring work >drudge v [I] …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • drudge — [n] slave, very hard worker factotum, grind*, laborer, menial, nose to grindstone*, peon*, plodder*, servant, toiler, workaholic, worker, workhorse; concept 348 Ant. idler, laze drudge [v] work very hard back to the salt mines*, dig, grind*,… …   New thesaurus

  • drudge — index labor, palliative (abating), strive Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • drudge — [ drʌdʒ ] noun count someone who has to do a lot of boring and unpleasant work …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • drudge — (n.) late 15c., one employed in mean, servile, or distasteful work, missing in O.E. and M.E. (but Cf. M.E. druggen do menial or monotonous work; druggunge, mid 13c., in Barnhart), but apparently related to O.E. dreogan to work, suffer, endure… …   Etymology dictionary

  • drudge — ► NOUN ▪ a person made to do hard, menial, or dull work. ORIGIN of unknown origin; perhaps related to DRAG(Cf. ↑drag) …   English terms dictionary

  • drudge — [druj] n. [ME druggen, prob. < OE dreogan: see DREE] a person who does hard, menial, or tedious work vi. drudged, drudging to do such work …   English World dictionary

  • Drudge — A drudge is a person who does tedious, menial, or unpleasant work; it can also refer to the work itself, known as drudgery. Drudge can also refer to: Matt Drudge, an American Internet journalist. Drudge Report, Matt Drudge s website. Drudge (TV… …   Wikipedia

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