donkey work

donkey work

Difficult and tedious work. Oh, don't worry, we can get our interns to do this donkey work for us.
See also: donkey, work
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

donkey work

the boring or laborious part of a job; drudgery.
2005 The Register I get the Systems guys to do all the donkey work once I'm sure it's up and running properly.
See also: donkey, work
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

the ˈdonkey work

(informal) the hard, boring parts of a job: Why is it always me who has to do the donkey work?
See also: donkey, work
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • the donkey work
  • do the donkey work
  • go about your work
  • in work
  • grunt work
  • go shares
  • dirty work at the crossroads
  • be at work
  • be your own master/mistress
  • be (one's) own master
References in periodicals archive
Of his role, Bolger told Mirror Sport: "You have to do a lot of the donkey work and you can't be selfish about it.
"We have worked well together and if I do the donkey work for him to score then I'm fine.
ANDREW SAYS: A team has to be built on squad cohesion and willingness to contribute in the right way - the "donkey work" as you put it, is exactly what Colback does and is exactly what the team need.
I suppose both of these will want a secretary to do all the donkey work, plus expenses adding to the cost.
Since only one horse in 50 was being used in the cavalry, most of the rest were, literally, doing heavy duty donkey work.
He had to do a lot of the donkey work and was still only beaten just over three lengths, so it was another good run."
Meltham IT was donkey work for the cast of a special nativity at a care home in the village, but young visitors and residents loved every minute of it.
Deano did his fair share of donkey work, but also came up with the goals so you'd think there's no better person for Mangan to learn off.
Donkey work: Businesses received some good news yesterday when Saudi Arabia called for talks to sort out 'unjustified' price rises
In the Tokyo-Glasgow collaboration, "the real donkey work and the part where no one thought we were getting anywhere was the 6 or 7 years of trying to purify enough enzyme to work with," Crozier recalls.
Naively, I assumed that all of the scholarship students, who did the donkey work and who met and escorted us to our Ballet Alley cabins when we first arrived, must be extremely talented.
Sir Patrick said the person who did all the "donkey work" had no qualifications in energy.
FaustinoAsprilla11, via ChronicleLive ANDREW SAYS: A team has to be built on squad cohesion and willingness to contribute in the right way - the "donkey work", as you put it, is exactly what Colback does and is exactly what the team need.
SUBS ADAM TAGGART 2 Shared thankless donkey work with Mckay.
The reference point being handed to most Newcastle fans is David Ginola - and the man who used to do the defensive donkey work for the Gallic wing genius has added his voice to the clamour.