ditch digging
Cutting drainage channels
Ditch digging is the work of excavating narrow trenches, typically for drainage or irrigation.
The phrase often serves as shorthand for unskilled manual labor—the kind of job invoked when warning students about their futures: If you don't study, you'll end up ditch digging for a living.
- trenchLong narrow excavation
- shovelTool for moving earth
- pick and shovelHand tools for excavation
- excavationAct of unearthing
- canalDug water passage
dig a hole · drainage · water main · backhoe · mud · dirt · clay · irrigation · culvert · pipe · groundwork · labor · manual labor · hard labor · blue collar · sweat equity · sweat · grunt
- manual laborfarming, lifting, carrying, shoveling, loading
- group workbarn raising, work party, team building, workday, collective farming
- farm laborfarmhands, farm labor, field hand, field hands, farm hand
- unpleasant jobsgarbage collection, meat packing, mucking stalls, latrine duty, coal mining
- draft workplowing, hauling, carting, towing, drayage
- land managementparcels, boundaries, surveying, zoning, land surveys
ditch diggingfilling in
Temporary replacement duty
backfilling · landfilling · tunneling · mining · grading
ditch diggingdesk job
Seated indoor employment
office work · intellectual labor · brain surgery · rocket science · corporate management
ditch diggingdesk work
Sedentary office labor
office work · intellectual labor · clerical work · pencil pushing · paper shuffling