See dirty work in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for dirty work meaning in English (3.6kB)
{
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "dirty work (uncountable)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 2, in Mary Barton",
"text": ". . . a sort of little back kitchen, where dirty work, such as washing up dishes, might be done.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1893, Horatio Alger, chapter 21, in Cast Upon the Breakers",
"text": "\"I am no telltale,\" said James scornfully. . . . Jasper urged James to give information about Rodney, but he steadily refused. \"I leave others to do such dirty work,\" he said.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1917, Upton Sinclair, chapter 11, in King Coal",
"text": "[M]any a business-man can say he doesn't do dirty work, because he has others do it for him.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1936, George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant",
"text": "In a job like that you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters. The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been Bogged with bamboos – all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2003 February 4, Elaine Shannon et al., “At Home, the FBI Keeps Tabs On Iraqis”, in Time",
"text": "US experts believe the Iraqi intelligence service will set the plots in motion, then recruit or extort amateurs to do the dirty work.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"One or more unpleasant tasks, assignments, or employment duties, especially those of a disreputable or illicit nature."
],
"id": "en-dirty_work-en-noun-vDlLcM0h",
"links": [
[
"unpleasant",
"unpleasant"
],
[
"task",
"task"
],
[
"assignment",
"assignment"
],
[
"employment",
"employment"
],
[
"duties",
"duty"
],
[
"disreputable",
"disreputable"
],
[
"illicit",
"illicit"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) One or more unpleasant tasks, assignments, or employment duties, especially those of a disreputable or illicit nature."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "get one's hands dirty"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"uncountable"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "likainen työ"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "sale boulot"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "basse besogne"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Drecksarbeit"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "lavoro sporco"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "grjáznaja rabóta",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "гря́зная рабо́та"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "skitgöra"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "grovjobb"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "kirli iş"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "pis iş"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-dirty work.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f3/En-au-dirty_work.ogg/En-au-dirty_work.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/En-au-dirty_work.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "dirty work"
}
{
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "dirty work (uncountable)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "get one's hands dirty"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with quotations",
"English uncountable nouns",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned",
"Translation table header lacks gloss"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 2, in Mary Barton",
"text": ". . . a sort of little back kitchen, where dirty work, such as washing up dishes, might be done.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1893, Horatio Alger, chapter 21, in Cast Upon the Breakers",
"text": "\"I am no telltale,\" said James scornfully. . . . Jasper urged James to give information about Rodney, but he steadily refused. \"I leave others to do such dirty work,\" he said.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1917, Upton Sinclair, chapter 11, in King Coal",
"text": "[M]any a business-man can say he doesn't do dirty work, because he has others do it for him.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1936, George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant",
"text": "In a job like that you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters. The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been Bogged with bamboos – all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2003 February 4, Elaine Shannon et al., “At Home, the FBI Keeps Tabs On Iraqis”, in Time",
"text": "US experts believe the Iraqi intelligence service will set the plots in motion, then recruit or extort amateurs to do the dirty work.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"One or more unpleasant tasks, assignments, or employment duties, especially those of a disreputable or illicit nature."
],
"links": [
[
"unpleasant",
"unpleasant"
],
[
"task",
"task"
],
[
"assignment",
"assignment"
],
[
"employment",
"employment"
],
[
"duties",
"duty"
],
[
"disreputable",
"disreputable"
],
[
"illicit",
"illicit"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) One or more unpleasant tasks, assignments, or employment duties, especially those of a disreputable or illicit nature."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-dirty work.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f3/En-au-dirty_work.ogg/En-au-dirty_work.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/En-au-dirty_work.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "likainen työ"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "sale boulot"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "basse besogne"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Drecksarbeit"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "lavoro sporco"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "grjáznaja rabóta",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "гря́зная рабо́та"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "skitgöra"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "grovjobb"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "kirli iş"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "pis iş"
}
],
"word": "dirty work"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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