taskwork

American  

[task-wurk, tahsk-] / ˈtæskˌwɜrk, ˈtɑsk- /

noun

1. work assigned or imposed as a task.

2. unpleasant or disagreeable work.

3. work paid for by the job; piecework.

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taskwork British  

/ ˈtɑːskˌwɜːk /

noun

1. hard or unpleasant work

2. a rare word for piecework

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Etymology

Origin of taskwork

First recorded in 1480–90; task + work

Example Sentences

Those at taskwork had fivepence, and in some cases as low as threepence per diem.

From The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 (3rd ed.) (1902) With Notices of Earlier Irish Famines by O'Rourke, John

For most men in a brazen prison live, Where, in the sun's hot eye, With heads bent o'er their toil, they languidly   40Their lives to some unmeaning taskwork give, Dreaming of nought beyond their prison-wall.

From Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems by Arnold, Matthew

For most men in a brazen prison live, Where, in the sun's hot eye, With heads bent o'er their toil, they languidly Their lives to some unmeaning taskwork give, Dreaming of nought beyond their prison-wall.

From Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold by Arnold, Matthew

Men are not what they seem to the outward eye—mere machines moving about in customary occupations—productive labourers of food and wearing apparel—slaves from morn to night at taskwork set them by the Wealth of Nations.

From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (of 2) by Wilson, John Lyde

But I have a taskwork to accomplish—one, I think, which God, by fitting me thereto, has pointed out as mine.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 361, November, 1845. by Various

Related Words

• action
• assignment
• business
• care
• duty
• effort
• office
• operation
• project
• responsibility
• role
• stint
• task
• thing
• work