DRUDGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does drudge mean? 

• DRUDGE (noun)
  The noun DRUDGE has 2 senses:

1. one who works hard at boring tasks

2. a laborer who is obliged to do menial work

  Familiarity information: DRUDGE used as a noun is rare.

• DRUDGE (verb)
  The verb DRUDGE has 1 sense:

1. work hard

  Familiarity information: DRUDGE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DRUDGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

One who works hard at boring tasks

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

drudge; hack; hacker

Hypernyms ("drudge" is a kind of...):

unskilled person (a person who lacks technical training)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "drudge"):

plodder; slogger (someone who works slowly and monotonously for long hours)

Derivation:

drudge (work hard)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A laborer who is obliged to do menial work

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

drudge; galley slave; navvy; peon

Hypernyms ("drudge" is a kind of...):

jack; laborer; labourer; manual laborer (someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor)

Derivation:

drudge (work hard)

• DRUDGE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they drudge    ... he / she / it drudges   
Past simple: drudged   
Past participle: drudged   
-ing form: drudging   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Work hard

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

dig; drudge; fag; grind; labor; labour; moil; toil; travail

Context example:

Lexicographers drudge all day long

Hypernyms (to "drudge" is one way to...):

do work; work (be employed)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

drudge (a laborer who is obliged to do menial work)

drudge (one who works hard at boring tasks)

drudgery (hard monotonous routine work)

 Context examples 

At the order, six men, dressed as common drudges, marched solemnly into the room, each bearing a huge bundle upon his head.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Emma guessed him to be the drudge of some attorney, and too stupid to rise.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

You belong with the oxen and the drudges, in dirty surroundings among smells and stenches.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

M. trusted D. C. was applying himself to business, and devoting himself wholly to his duties—not the least hint of my ever being anything else than the common drudge into which I was fast settling down.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Also, while aware that poverty was anything but delectable, she had a comfortable middle-class feeling that poverty was salutary, that it was a sharp spur that urged on to success all men who were not degraded and hopeless drudges.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)