Dirty work?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Dirty work?

Also, since Conan Doyle was dealing with criminals and murders and so forth, dirty also implies all the shady businesses his characters were involved in.

By definition, dirty as in get our hands dirty, if you will.

If our job is to sweep the street, for instance, then literally our job is to do the dirty work for the city in which we live.

Metaphorically speaking, dirty work often refers to a task that is physically taxing and mentally boring.

Put it this way: It’s not the best job in the world but somebody has to do it, as they say. In other words, it is necessary.

Mothers, for example, do all the dirty work at home and, often, don’t get the recognition they deserve.

For another example, machines and robots, are invented to do the dirty work for factory workers in the workshop and outside in the field.

On the sports field, everyone wants to score (and celebrate afterwards). Nobody wants to play defense. Playing defense, then, is considered part of the dirty work.

And, for another example, if your boss wants to fire somebody but doesn’t want to tell him or her directly and ask you to break the news to them, then you’re asked to do the dirty work for your boss.

Not sure if the last example is a savory one, but you get the idea.

All right, here are real media examples to help us understand “dirty work” better:

1. Forty-four years ago, the Poor People’s Campaign came to Washington, D. C. to demand jobs, health care, and decent housing. The protestors arrived on May 12, 1968 and set up a shantytown encampment called Resurrection City on the National Mall, which lasted for six weeks. The campaign picked up where Martin Luther King, Jr. left off before his assassination in April.