Word.ws English Dictionary

donkey work

donkey work noun: work that is difficult, boring, and routine.

Noun

donkey work (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) Work that is difficult, boring, and routine.
    • Why does everyone else get the interesting work while I have to do all the donkey work, and even the company's dirty work?
    • Labi said she did not need to carry planks of wood on her head any more, it was donkey work for idiots2019, Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other, Penguin Books (2020), page 161

donkey work meaning in Bengali and Persian

donkey work in Bengali

একঘেয়ে এবং নিয়মিত

donkey work in Persian

hard, boring, routine work
خرکاری

Forms of donkey work

alternative formdonkey-work
alternative formdonkeywork

Questions about donkey work

What does donkey work mean?
Donkey work means work that is difficult, boring, and routine.
What is donkey work in Bengali?
Donkey work in Bengali is একঘেয়ে এবং নিয়মিত. See Donkey work meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is donkey work?
Donkey work is a noun.

Words near donkey work in the dictionary

  1. donkey stools
  2. donkey vote
  3. donkey voter
  4. donkey voters
  5. donkey votes
  6. donkey work
  7. donkey's
  8. donkey's ears
  9. donkey's eye
  10. donkey's years
  11. donkey-boy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: donkey work (page history and authors); donkey work (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-donkey work.ogg.

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