spadework

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: spade=work

OXFORD DICTIONARY

spadework, n. hard or routine preparatory work.

THESAURUS

spadework

arrangement, basic training, briefing, clearing the decks, dirty work, donkeywork, drudgery, employment, equipment, fag, familiarization, fatigue, fixing, foundation, grind, groundwork, handiwork, handwork, industry, labor, lick, lick of work, makeready, making ready, manual labor, manufacture, mobilization, moil, planning, prearrangement, preliminaries, preliminary, preliminary act, preliminary step, prep, preparation, preparatory study, preparing, prepping, prerequisite, pretreatment, processing, propaedeutic, provision, rat race, readying, scut work, slavery, stroke, stroke of work, sweat, task, tiresome work, toil, training, travail, treadmill, treatment, trial, tryout, warm-up, work