legwork
noun
leg·work
| \ ˈleg-ˌwərk also ˈlāg-
\
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Definition of legwork
: active physical work (as in gathering information) that forms the basis of more creative or mentally exacting work (such as writing a book)
Examples of legwork in a Sentence
I wrote the article myself, but my assistant gathered the information and did most of the other legwork.
Recent Examples on the Web
Milner credits Friscic, a postdoctoral research associate who came to MIT from Croatia in 2016, with doing most of the legwork for the experiment. — Maria Lovato, BostonGlobe.com, "MIT physicists design an experiment to study the origin of oxygen in the universe," 27 Aug. 2019 Do your research, and be willing to put in the legwork necessary to turn your plan into a success. — Eugenia Last, The Mercury News, "Horoscopes: July 8, 2019," 8 July 2019 After six months of legwork, Hedley became the fourth straight Australian punter, sight unseen, to attend the City College of San Francisco. — Dave Hyde, sun-sentinel.com, "Hyde: From Australia with tattoos, Louis Hedley’s fame precedes his punts with Hurricanes | Commentary," 15 Aug. 2019 This development may end up rewarding active investors who do legwork on companies themselves. — Jon Sindreu, WSJ, "The Dangerous Rise of Sponsored Stock Research," 28 Nov. 2018 Old fashioned legwork would be needed, Melcher said, in the form of door-to-door canvassing and petitioning. — John Aguilar, The Denver Post, "RTD at 50: The freeway fight that paved the way for transit in metro Denver," 29 June 2019 Yet, the committee is still undecided about embarking on the process to submit an application — because to do so would require lots of legwork. — Jane Stueckemann, Houston Chronicle, "Woodlands committee mulls applying for cultural arts district grant," 27 June 2019 Deal nearly falls apart Sandbrook expected his months of expansion legwork on behalf of the Pac-8 to pay off with a rubber stamp unanimous approval from the presidents/chancellors at a Dec. 13, 1976, meeting in San Francisco. — Jeff Metcalfe, azcentral, "Reluctant to leave WAC, Arizona State has Arizona to thank for pushing move into Pac-8," 22 June 2019 Given the diplomatic legwork that went into forging the initial withdrawal deal, however, government officials are reluctant to reopen the fraught talks with the EU. — Jason Douglas, WSJ, "U.K. Parliament Repudiates Theresa May’s Brexit Plan," 15 Jan. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'legwork.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for legwork
legwork
noun
English Language Learners Definition of legwork
: the active physical work that is involved in doing something
See the full definition for legwork in the English Language Learners Dictionary