drudge 1 of 2

noun

Definition of drudgenext
1
as in laborer
a person who does very hard or dull work worked like a drudge at a low-paying job that had few benefits

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in drudgery
very hard or unpleasant work it took hours of pure drudge to sort through the junk in the basement

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

drudge

2 of 2

verb

ˈdrəj How to pronounce drudge (audio)
as in to labor
to devote serious and sustained effort factory workers who must drudge all day at repetitive tasks

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of drudge
Noun
Offload drudge work and risky tasks so humans can focus on safer, more creative work. — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 10 Sep. 2025 The corporate laborers of the industrial age were drudges, and might have needed the scaffolding of managerial hierarchies to make widgets in bulk. — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2025
Verb
Their previous defeat, a 33-point drudging by the Atlanta Hawks, led to coach Doug Christie chastising his team’s defensive effort after the game. — Chris Biderman, Sacbee.com, 14 Nov. 2025 After months of drudging through renovations, the Tiki Taco team will soon enjoy the (jack)fruits of its labor. — Jenna Thompson, Kansas City Star, 5 Feb. 2024 See All Example Sentences for drudge
Recent Examples of Synonyms for drudge
  1. laborer
  2. drudgery
  3. labor
  4. worker
  5. effort
  6. struggle
  7. toil
  8. strive
Noun
  • Activists suspect that Flock’s data has been used to plan immigration raids, which frequently target hardware store parking lots where migrant day-laborers often wait for work.
    — Jack Crosbie, Rolling Stone, 31 Aug. 2026
  • His father, Charles, had expanded the New Jersey real estate development business his grandfather, a Polish Holocaust survivor, had begun after starting out as a construction laborer.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2026
Definition of laborer
Noun
  • Fuller’s ideas are hard to summarize, but always seem to reach toward a utopian vision of escaping the drudgery of everyday life.
    — Christopher Cox, Vanity Fair, 26 Aug. 2026
  • Aesthetic experiences were here not reserved for museums or the elite, but folded in along with daily drudgeries.
    — Emily Watlington, ARTnews.com, 24 Aug. 2026
Definition of drudgery
Verb
  • Humans engaged user interfaces to command software and engage with outputs like dashboards, while APIs labored in the background.
    — George C. Lee II, Fortune, 26 Aug. 2026
  • Thoroughly unimpressed by her suburban idyll, and evidently unmoved by her responsibilities as wife and mother, Denise labors in her basement on a novel whose protagonist wishes to forsake her family for a life in New York.
    — Peter Tonguette, The Washington Examiner, 22 Aug. 2026
Definition of labor
Noun
  • Wichai Yuankham, 35, a factory worker who came to watch the ships arrive, said the naval visit was a welcome boost to the local economy.
    — Mosheh Gains, NBC news, 2 Sep. 2026
  • Changing majors and career paths The CNBC survey found that almost 40% of students and workers enrolled in school have considered changing their major, field of study or coursework due to AI, rising to 44% for students who are not employed.
    — Sophie Caldwell, CNBC, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of worker
Noun
  • Its architecture could contribute to future efforts involving inexpensive rockets produced in much larger quantities.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 29 Aug. 2026
  • Poor Anton has been left out of the drama all day, an effort by Billie and Samir to prevent an already bad futzing from escalating to something severe, and that’s never where Anton likes to be.
    — Ben Rosenstock, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of effort
Verb
  • Three days later, the team brought in Moody, the former Michigan standout who has also struggled at times in his young career.
    — Jeff Zrebiec, New York Times, 1 Sep. 2026
  • Restaurants and private grocery stores are struggling to stay open because of higher supply costs and lower consumption.
    — Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of struggle
Noun
  • The poem is about how our most worthwhile pursuits—things like art, love, and beauty—often seem to demand a measure of toil.
    — Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 19 Aug. 2026
  • With debts racking up, Ina loses the family’s bus company, forcing her to shift between jobs, from construction to becoming a bar entertainer, therefore forging an identity through toil.
    — Lé Baltar, IndieWire, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of toil
Verb
  • OpenAI is striving to regain the initiative in the AI race against a backdrop of growing anxiety from experts, tech leaders, and the public over the risks of frontier AI.
    — Brendan Ruberry, semafor.com, 3 Sep. 2026
  • Behind every bottle lies a world shaped by ritual and inheritance, and by those striving to preserve or transform it.
    — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of strive

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drudge
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Cite this Entry

“Drudge.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/drudge. Accessed 4 Sep. 2026.

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