The boring or laborious part of a job; drudgery:supervisors who get a research student to do the donkey work...
As the vast majority of his work was formulaic, this method saved a great deal of donkey work, while at the same time, it served as theory exercises for his pupils.
The donkey work of this book was done by a ghostwriter.
The donkey work had been done - the intricate brushing away of thousands of years of dust and soil was a task undertaken by the steady handed experts.
Synonyms
work, effort, endeavour, toil, labour, exertion, graft, the sweat of one's brow, drudgery