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spadework

noun

Definition of spadeworknext
as in effort

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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 spadework These aren’t fads or fancy frameworks, but rather daily spadework that cultivates a culture of collaborative excellence. — Doug Sundheim, Forbes.com, 6 May 2025 But the loss at the Mercedes plants will almost surely slow down the union’s campaign and probably force it to do more spadework to secure the support of workers before seeking to hold elections at other auto plants. — Jack Ewing, New York Times, 17 May 2024 In this peacemaking effort, the United States would have to do almost all the spadework. — Ned Temko, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Mar. 2024 Early spadework for the new batch of projects also dates back to the City of Cleveland’s 2004 Waterfront District Plan. — Steven Litt, cleveland, 26 Feb. 2022 See All Example Sentences for spadework
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spadework
  1. effort
  2. toil
  3. drudgery
  4. fatigue
  5. travail
  6. slavery
Noun
  • Kalin said Turkey would continue to make efforts to help resolve the tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan through dialogue, the news agency reported.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 19 Sep. 2026
  • The state’s top law enforcement officer will not shed any light on why subpoenas were recently served on a slew of Broward County officials regarding the county’s efforts to explore cutting ties with the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
    — Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of effort
Noun
  • But like many creatives before him (McQueen included), the relentless toil of brand building eventually began to crowd out the creativity itself.
    — Paige Reddinger, Robb Report, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Extreme mountain climbing has never looked anything but miserable from the distance of a screening room, and The Other Side delivers mightily on all that scraping, straining, gasping toil.
    — Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of toil
Noun
  • Worse, some of us are offloading the drudgery of writing recommendation letters, grant proposals, and even scientific papers to AI.
    — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Co-creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman spun the Peacock series out of the universe of The Office, transferring Oscar Nuñez’s accountant Oscar, as well as the general vibe of workplace drudgery, to a dying Toledo newspaper.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of drudgery
Noun
  • But unlike actual fatigues, this is cut to drape just right in all the right places and is clean of any distressing and patches.
    — Alison Syrett Cleary, InStyle, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Beyond common cold symptoms like a cough, sore throat and runny nose, people sick with COVID-19 often have body aches, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing, headache, fatigue, fever and loss of taste and/or smell.
    — Ann Sheehan, The Conversation, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of fatigue
Noun
  • The comedy-drama will revisit the lives and travails of the eponymous sisters.
    — Stewart Clarke, Deadline, 14 Sep. 2026
  • What happens next at first feels like a dreadful narrative misstep, seemingly reinforcing the idea that cutting oneself off from others can save them from life’s travails.
    — Jay Weissberg, Variety, 7 Sep. 2026
Definition of travail
Noun
  • Cora, the granddaughter of a woman kidnapped from West Africa and sold into slavery, flees her captor’s plantation, plunging her into the book’s alternate steampunk reality where she is pursued by the merciless slave catcher Ridgeway.
    — David Faris, TheWeek, 16 Sep. 2026
  • There were none available when someone should have wiped from existence a hype video that used the painful history of slavery and the Civil War as college football rivalry fodder.
    — Joe Rexrode, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of slavery

Browse Nearby Words

spades
spadework
spadeworks
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Cite this Entry

“Spadework.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spadework. Accessed 19 Sep. 2026.

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