chore

[chawr, chohr] /tʃɔr, tʃoʊr/
noun
1.
a small or odd job; routine task.
2.
chores, the everyday work around a house or farm.
3.
a hard or unpleasant task:
Solving the problem was quite a chore.
Origin
1375-1425; late Middle English char, Old English cyrr, variant of cierr, cerr char3
Synonyms
1. duty, work, errand, stint. 1, 2. See task.
Examples from the web for chore
  • Yet taxpayers are still required to perform the anachronistic chore of preparing a return from scratch.
  • Teaching them, it seemed, was a chore to be suffered until you could return to your writing.
  • Consider the daily chore of taking the right pills at the right time.
  • Yet they are durable and flexible enough to perform any brushing chore.
  • Some people will take to that chore as if they were born to it.
  • Little wonder people have begun coming up with tools which promise to make this less of a chore.
  • Thus, inventory management quickly becomes an annoying, frustrating chore.
  • Most people have a chore that they cannot bring themselves to do.
  • Still, watching for inappropriate posts was a round-the-clock chore.
  • We try to brush her nightly but even with soft music and candles it's a chore.
British Dictionary definitions for chore

chore

/tʃɔː/
noun
1.
a small routine task, esp a domestic one
2.
an unpleasant task
Word Origin
C19: variant of Middle English chare; related to char³
Word Origin and History for chore
n.

1751, American English, variant of char, from Middle English cherre "odd job," from Old English cerr, cierr "turn, change, time, occasion, affair business."

Chore, a corruption of char, is an English word, still used in many parts of England, as a char-man, a char-woman; but in America, it is perhaps confined to New England. It signifies small domestic jobs of work, and its place cannot be supplied by any other single word in the language. [Noah Webster, "Dissertations on the English Language," 1789]