do the donkey work

do the donkey work

To do difficult and tedious work. Primarily heard in UK. Oh, don't worry, we can get our interns to do the donkey work for us.

See also: donkey, work

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

do the donkey work

BRITISH

If you do the donkey work, you do the most physically tiring or boring parts of a job or piece of work. The bottom lot were the mechanics who did the sheer physical donkey work. We've been very fortunate getting a succession of secretaries who've managed to do the donkey work.

See also: donkey, work

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012