Definition
One or more unpleasant tasks, assignments, or employment duties, especially those of a disreputable or illicit nature.
In Context
- "[A] sort of little back kitchen, where dirty work, such as washing up dishes, might be done."
- ""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."
- "[M]any a business-man can say he doesn't do dirty work, because he has others do it for him."
- "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 flogged with bamboos—all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt."
- "US experts believe the Iraqi intelligence service will set the plots in motion, then recruit or extort amateurs to do the dirty work."
- "Das ist die Drecksarbeit, die Israel macht für uns alle."