drudge
/dɹʌd͡ʒ/ noun, verb
Forms drudges drudging drudged
- noun (also attributively) A person who works in a low servile job. “drudge work”
- noun (derogatory) Someone who works for (and may be taken advantage of by) someone else.
- verb (intransitive) To labour in (or as in) a low servile job.
Synonyms
peon minion hack hacker navvy galley slave labor labour toil fag travail grind dig moil
Etymology
From Middle English druggen, perhaps from Old English *dryċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *druggjan, from Proto-Germanic *drugjaną, a denominative built to a lost noun *drugjaz (preserved in Old English Dryċġhelm), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ-; compare Old English drēogan (“to do; to suffer”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To perform menial work; to labor in mean or unpleasant offices with toil and fatigue.
- verb To consume laboriously; --with away.
- noun One who drudges; one who works hard in servile employment; a mental servant. Milton.
Etymology [OE. druggen; prob not akin to E. drag, v. t., but fr. Celtic; cf. Ir. drugaire a slave or drudge.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “drudge”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details