fetch-and-carry task
- noun
- /ˈfɛtʃ ənd ˈkæri tɑsk/
- Informal
:
tarea de recados
- She was tired of being assigned every fetch-and-carry task in the office.
Examples
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During his internship, he was constantly assigned fetch-and-carry tasks, like delivering documents around the office.
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The intern felt his first week was nothing but fetch-and-carry tasks.
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For months, he performed only fetch-and-carry tasks before getting real responsibility.
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He has to complete a fetch-and-carry task every day.
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These fetch-and-carry tasks can be quite exhausting.
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After the meeting, she was overwhelmed by a list of fetch-and-carry tasks that had to be done by the end of the day.
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He realized that his job mostly consisted of fetch-and-carry tasks, which left him feeling unchallenged.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A task you must do as part of your duties
∞
1.0
A piece of work someone must do, often given by another person
195
1.0
A small, boring job you must do at home, like washing dishes
192
1.3
A short trip to do a small task, often for someone else
11
2.5
An act of going to get something and bringing it back
10
5.3
Boring, simple jobs that are necessary and take a lot of time
A short job someone does for another person
How Menial
Surface Forms
Morphology
fetch-and-carry + task
The phrase denotes a task to 'fetch' (go and get) and 'carry' (transport) objects, so its meaning is directly and transparently built from the known constituents plus 'task' (a duty). Although used in a technical robotics context, the verb combination is compositional and easily inferable by a B1 learner who knows the component words.
Etymology
Fetch-and-carry task comes from the simple image of a helper who must fetch (go and get things) and carry them back for someone else, doing small errands all day. So it now means a small, boring job with little responsibility.