ˈtask-work
[f. task n. + work n.]
1. Work performed as a task; forced labour; hence, oppressive or burdensome work.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 34 Shee frams firmlye statuts, and task wurcks equalye parteth. 1814 Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 241 It was the heaviest task-work I ever went through. 1827 Scott Jrnl. 14 Jan., I feel a dislike to order and to task-work of all kinds. 1849 Grote Greece ii. xxxviii. V. 28 The canal-cutting..was..distributed under their measurement as task-work among the contingents of the various nations. 1885 Bible (R.V.) Prov. xii. 24. |
2. Work done by the piece; piece-work.
| 1486–7 in E. B. Jupp Carpenters' Co. (1887) 349 That no persone of the said crafte hereafter make any foreign carpenter his fellows..in any taske werke takyng. 1581 in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 344 a, Tasque work viz. to John Rose for a Mount. 1721 Perry Daggenh. Breach 77 They work'd two or three Times as much by Task-work as by the Day, or by the Tide. 1855 J. R. Leifchild Cornwall Mines 142 In Cornish mines, the sinking of shafts and the driving of levels is paid by tut-work or task-work, at so much per fathom. |