legwork

[ leg-wurk ]

noun

1. work or research involving extensive walking or traveling about, usually away from one's office, as in gathering data for a book, a legal action, etc.
2. action of the legs as executed by an athlete, dancer, etc.

legwork

/ ˈlɛɡˌwɜːk /

noun

1. informal.
   work that involves travelling on foot or as if on foot

Word History and Origins

Origin of legwork¹

An Americanism dating back to 1890–95; leg + work

Example Sentences

She’s patient — to a pointNone of this happens without significant legwork on Pelosi’s part.

From Washington Post

Putting in a little legwork to pick the best air mattress for your needs will pay off in the long run, and a model like the SoundSleep Dream will suit most any nap or night’s needs.

From Popular-Science

That prevents them from easily importing verified income data from the Internal Revenue Service onto their FAFSA form and requires more legwork to complete the audit.

From Washington Post

Good luck on your shopping expedition—and if you get tired of doing the legwork, come on back here and go with one of our picks.

From Popular-Science

It’s worth noting that even Fox News declined to report on the laptop without doing some legwork first.

From Washington Post

Instead, hard legwork and reaching out to past voters got it done.

From The Daily Beast

Of course, cracking this market will require some costly legwork.

From The Daily Beast

To its credit, the Obama administration has already begun some of this legwork.

From The Daily Beast

Police enthusiasm dropped to the norm of what they called legwork.

From Project Gutenberg

Me, Bill Rawlins, I do the legwork, and tend to the business details.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• audit
• checking
• checkup
• cross-examination
• diagnosis
• experiment
• exploration
• inquiry
• inspection
• interrogation
• investigation
• observation
• probe
• questioning
• questionnaire
• raid
• research
• review
• scan
• scrutiny