shitwork

English

Etymology

shit +‎ work

Noun

shitwork (uncountable)

1. (derogatory) Work of low status or yielding little satisfaction.
   • 1987, James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia, page 276:

     Now it was real detective shitwork.

   • 1991, Ben Hamper, Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line:

     GM paid us a tidy income and we did the shitwork. No one was holding a gun to anyone's head.

   • 2000, David McCumber, The Cowboy Way: Seasons of a Montana Ranch, page 88:

     Mop again. Check the drop again. Clean the floor again. Fill the manger again. Shitwork.

   • 2005, Linda Barnes, Coyote, page 111:

     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.

   • 2006, Katarzyna Marciniak, Alienhood: citizenship, exile, and the logic of difference, page 53:

     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.

   • 2011, David Zimmerman, The Sandbox:

     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.

Synonyms

• (pejorative): gruntwork, bitchwork

Translations

work of low status or satisfaction

• Finnish: paskaduuni (fi), hanttihomma
• German: Scheißarbeit f (vulgar, pejorative), Scheissarbeit f (Switzerland, Liechtenstein spelling)

See also

• blocking and tackling