drudgery
(ˈdrʌdʒərɪ)
Also 6 droudgery, 6–7 druggery.
[f. drudge n. + -ery; cf. slavery.]
The occupation of a drudge; mean or servile labour; wearisome toil; dull or distasteful work.
| 1550 Crowley Inform. & Petit. 557 To tyll the grounde and doe your other droudgery. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Elixer v, A servant with this clause Makes drudgerie divine. 1652–62 Heylin Cosmogr. ii. (1682) 183 Who put them to all Drudgeries and servile Works. 1791 Boswell Johnson 10 Apr. an. 1753, He now relieved the drudgery of his Dictionary..by taking an active part in the composition of ‘The Adventurer’. 1879 M. Pattison Milton xii. 163 If there is any literary drudgery more mechanical than another, it is generally supposed to be that of making a dictionary. 1890 W. C. Gannett Blessed be Drudgery 15 Drudgery is the gray Angel of Success. |
| β 1598 Florio, Marruffino, the yoongest prentise in a house, one that is put to all druggerie. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 297 Avaricious plenty is its own Tasker..whose Druggery and Time to serve God cannot consist together. |
b. attrib., as in
† drudgery work,
drudgery servant.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. i. ii. (1651) 42 Familiar spirits, which are there said to be conversant with men, and do their drudgery works. a 1654 Selden Table-T. (Arb.) 88 They that do drudgery-work. 1801 Gabrielli Myster. Husb. IV. 119 A mere drudgery servant. |