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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

shitwork en · NOUN

Etymology

From shit + work.

Meanings

  1. (derogatory, uncountable) Work of low status or yielding little satisfaction.
    • Now it was real detective shitwork. 1987, James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia, page 276:
    • I'm not into chasing some poor OTM wants to come in here and earn food money doing the kind of shitwork native-born Americans won't do. 2005, Linda Barnes, Coyote, page 111:
    • GM paid us a tidy income and we did the shitwork. No one was holding a gun to anyone's head. 1991, Ben Hamper, Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line:
    • Mop again. Check the drop again. Clean the floor again. Fill the manger again. Shitwork. 2000, David McCumber, The Cowboy Way: Seasons of a Montana Ranch, page 88:
    • Basically, he does the shitwork. As scrawny as he is, Ahmed can heft a good bit of weight and always seems to be busy even when he's not doing anything, a skill I'd like to learn. 2011, David Zimmerman, The Sandbox:
    • He's a Chicano. He's an American citizen but he comes from a Mexican family. That's why he has to do the same shitwork we do. 2006, Katarzyna Marciniak, Alienhood: citizenship, exile, and the logic of difference, page 53:
  2. (qualifier:especially GNOME, uncountable) Tasks which could be done automatically by software but which the software forces the user to do manually.

Relateds

blocking and tackling

Synonyms

gruntwork · bitchwork

Translations (4)

de Scheißarbeit (work of low status or satisfaction) · de Scheissarbeit (work of low status or satisfaction) · fi paskaduuni (work of low status or satisfaction) · fi hanttihomma (work of low status or satisfaction)