grunt work

noun, Slang.

work that is repetitious, often physically exhausting, and boring.

Examples from the web for grunt work

The machines doing the grunt work loosen the dust and send it airborne where workers can breathe it in copiously.
There are more people who want to work in music but don't think they need to learn the grunt work.
They try to stick it to the adjuncts to do the grunt work.
At some point along the line, you are going to have to cut your teeth with some low-paying entry-level grunt work.
Most volunteer vacations charge participants for the chance to do grunt work without pay.
Which means the clerks will do the grunt work of reading it and then parsing out its essential doctrines.
They get stuck with all the grunt work while their bosses swan around in the limelight.
They also do a fair amount of grunt work for the club.
By banning your computer's grunt work to the night shift, you can spend more time doing productive things with it during the day.
Thus control of the wealth went to the top, while the poor were those left with doing the grunt work.

Slang definitions & phrases for grunt work

grunt work

noun phrase

Hard and/or tedious toil; bullwork, scut work: The machine will do the grunt work, filing, typing lists, comparing, sorting/ Congress returned to Washington and settled down for a month of grunt work/ Whereas Agassi's every second of court time is grunt labor (1977+)