Schlep

Delightfully weirdlanguageculture

Etymology

From Yiddish shlepn (“to drag, to haul”), from Middle High German sleppen (compare German schleppen). English uses it both as a verb — to lug something wearily — and as a noun for the exhausting trek itself.

  1. noun · /SHLEP/

    A tedious, effortful journey, or the wearisome act of hauling something.

    What it names

    The trip that is all burden and no pleasure — the long, awkward haul you resent even as you make it.

    Example

    Getting to the airport at that hour is such a schlep that she books the earliest flight only in emergencies.

    Related idea

    A commute is routine travel; a schlep is travel that feels like a burden — long, awkward, and faintly resented.

See also

HerculeanSisyphean