leaf-raking en · NOUN
Etymology
Sense regarding employment: from the nature of some of the activities of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression in the US.
Meanings
- (uncountable) The act or process of raking leaves.
-
(US, derogatory, uncountable, usually) Marginally productive government-financed employment.
Yet neither man came close to realizing his early political promise, or to forgiving the tendency of the average voter to sell his birthright for a leaf-raking job or Social Security card.
2003, Richard Norton Smith, The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880-1955, page 63:public agencies were to plan building programs that would do the job and preserve communities from “the necessity of feeding hungry men through the expediency of 'leaf-raking' projects or the dole or soup lines.
1991, Robert Dallek, Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960, volume 1:Relief was essential and began under Hoover; then, under Roosevelt, relief turned into leaf-raking, and leaf-raking turned into constructive enterprise.
1955, Robert L. Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economists, page 225:
Translations (2)
sv skyddad verkstad (government-financed employment) · sv lövkrattning (raking of leaves)