[f. TASK sb. + WORK sb.]
1. Work performed as a task; forced labor; hence, oppressive or burdensome work.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 34. Shee frams firmlye statuts, and task wurcks equalye parteth.
1814. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 241. It was the heaviest task-work I ever went through.
1827. Scott, Jrnl., 14 Jan. I feel a dislike to order and to task-work of all kinds.
1849. Grote, Greece, II. xxxviii. V. 28. The canal-cutting … was … distributed under their measurement as task-work among the contingents of the various nations.
1885. Bible (R. V.), Prov. xii. 24.
2. Work done by the piece; piece-work.
1486–7. in E. B. Jupp, Carpenters’ Co. (1887), 349. That no persone of the said crafte hereafter make any foreign carpenter his fellows … in any taske werke takyng.
1581. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 344 n. Tasque work viz. to John Rose for a Mount.
1721. Perry, Daggenh. Breach, 77. They work’d two or three Times as much by Task-work as by the Day, or by the Tide.
1855. J. R. Leifchild, Cornwall Mines, 142. In Cornish mines, the sinking of shafts and the driving of levels is paid by tut-work or task-work, at so much per fathom.
