spadework
1
6.8
- noun
- /ˈspeɪdˌwɜrk/
:
trabajo preparatorio
- The team did a lot of spadework to prepare for the important project ahead.
Examples
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Before the event, the organizers completed all the necessary spadework to ensure everything ran smoothly.
-
This is a wonderful idea, and thank you for doing the spadework for us so that we can easily contact our legislators.
Blog text (17) -
First, only by the end of 2012 will the group of international experts finish the necessary spadework and the report on the results of the undertaken study.
Blog text (27) -
Just the usual spadework until we get to the masonry of the vault, and then we just drill through.
-
Building on spadework by their predecessors, conservative coalition governments replaced the old system, under which the central government reimbursed local governments for social service expenditures, with block grants.
Academic text (1996) -
Opponents of globalization often like to blame it for a nation's economic woes, as it is easier to point the finger at unpopular targets like multinational firms than to take on the tough spadework of institutional and economic reform in low-income or low-growth economies.
Academic text (2002) -
She spent weeks on the spadework for her thesis, researching and gathering data.
Synonyms
54
3.8
Work done first to make something possible
22
3.7
Work that involves going to places and finding information
10
5.3
Boring, simple jobs that are necessary and take a lot of time
1
9.9
Unpleasant small jobs that no one wants to do
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Spadework comes from the simple tool spade, which is used to 'dig' the ground. So spadework means the basic, often boring work that lays the 'ground' for a bigger project.