Definition of drudgingnext
as in boring
causing weariness, restlessness, or lack of interest the hours of drudging effort that went into straightening out the company's books

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

drudging

2 of 2

verb

present participle of drudge

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of drudging
Verb
In the last few years AI companies have been reportedly shifting from training their models with the help of data annotators (who, in some instances, have experienced allegedly exploitative and toxic working conditions) doing drudging work in developing countries. Katie Kilkenny, HollywoodReporter, 24 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for drudging
Adjective
  • As a matter of fact, this will probably be one of the more boring editions of this column.
    Gary Davenport, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Alice’s viewpoint is boring, and anyone who agonizes about it forever will never get to the interesting parts.
    Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • In line with the great tech selloff over AI spending fears, Capgemini’s share price has been laboring.
    Kamal Ahmed, Fortune, 16 Sep. 2026
  • While practicing for a sixth straight day, laboring in a heat index pushing 90 degrees, the Chiefs were bound to be a bit ill-mannered.
    Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 8 Aug. 2026
Adjective
  • Soreness began settling in, and Mincey taught us a technique for safely walking on locked knees to spare our tiring muscles, which got us through the steep and gravelly hike.
    Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 5 Sep. 2026
  • But keeping that up can be a tiring proposition once a Grand Slam rolls around.
    Rebecca Tauber, New York Times, 3 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Rome’s deputy mayor for sustainable mobility and transport, Eugenio Patanè, is striving to restore order and reduce traffic — and not just golf carts.
    ABC News, ABC News, 4 Sep. 2026
  • OpenAI is striving to regain the initiative in the AI race against a backdrop of growing anxiety from experts, tech leaders, and the public over the risks of frontier AI.
    Brendan Ruberry, semafor.com, 3 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • Complex carbs with fiber slow digestion and sugar absorption, while protein and fat further delay digestion, helping to stabilize blood sugar.
    Mira Miller, Verywell Health, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Longer messages mean slower communication, so people who study error-correcting codes devise more elaborate schemes to minimize the redundancy in the transmissions while maximizing the number of errors that can be corrected.
    Jack Murtagh, Scientific American, 17 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • The play becomes an intellectual exercise — often a technically compelling one, and one that thankfully observes the comedy of Chekhov’s struggling souls as much as their tragedy.
    Sara Holdren, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026
  • But Trumpism is also what Gramsci called a morbid symptom of the interregnum, an expression of a country riven by political polarization and by economic inequity, and struggling to come to terms with the waning of its singular status.
    Ishaan Tharoor, New Yorker, 17 Sep. 2026
Adjective
  • But the image that emerges here is of an already war-weary, fragile and poor country being pushed ever closer to a breaking point.
    Nic Robertson, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 2026
  • In war-weary Lebanon, Israeli strikes have intensified in response to Hezbollah drone attacks.
    Suzan Haidamous, Washington Post, 8 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Hester pointed to test scores as a sign the school choice program is working.
    Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 16 Sep. 2026
  • Under the contract, COnovate will continue scaling US production while working toward commercial qualification of the material.
    Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 16 Sep. 2026

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Drudging.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/drudging. Accessed 20 Sep. 2026.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster