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Definitions

drudgery

[druhj-uh-ree] / ˈdrʌdʒ ə ri /


Usage

What are other ways to say drudgery?

Drudgery suggests continuous, dreary, and dispiriting work, especially of a menial or servile kind: the drudgery of household tasks. Labor particularly denotes hard manual work: backbreaking labor; arduous labor. Toil suggests wearying or exhausting labor: toil that breaks down the worker's health. Work is the general word and may apply to exertion that is either easy or hard: fun work; heavy work. 

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.

See Examples For:

The robots will sell for $30,000 apiece, and they will relieve us from all manner of drudgery.

From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2026

Some gamify spending or offer consumers a high-stakes, lottery-like experience, while others try to make saving feel less like drudgery.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026

Plastic, prefabrication and push-button convenience suggested that mass production could bring elegant, futuristic living — and freedom from drudgery — within reach of the masses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

His is about an ordinary person who escapes drudgery in a bookstore and becomes a famous fashion model in Paris.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026

There was no trouble Kate would not take, no drudgery she was afraid of, and, in addition, she brought business.

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

But Roth is concerned that some patients may be so eager to escape the drudgeries of dialysis that they are willing to accept a sub-par kidney.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 17, 2020

I loved these tales of going up in these famous fighters and bombers on test runs, of the camaraderie on base, even the drudgeries of guard duty or rushing to breakfast in the mess.

From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2020

Desks of some furloughed employees, whose job can include such drudgeries as helping their bosses work the copy machine, sit empty in the West Wing.

From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2019

“Welfare” evokes poverty as a trial of rote drudgeries.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 2, 2019

We tend to count the diseases conquered, the planets explored, the drudgeries banished, and to assert that the greater good is served by seeing things our way.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro


Vocabulary lists containing drudgery

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