English

Noun

dogsbody ‎(plural dogsbodies)

1. (Britain) A person who does menial work, a servant.
   • That's just Baldrick, my dogsbody. — Blackadder.
   • 1995, Paul Kussmaul, Training The Translator, John Benjamins Publishing Co, p. 146:

     Furthermore, there are still rather backward opinions in our society about the role of a translator. A translator is often regarded as a linguistic dogsbody.

Synonyms

• factotum
• gofer
• handyman
• jack of all trades
• odd job

Translations

Verb

dogsbody ‎(third-person singular simple present dogsbodies, present participle dogsbodying, simple past and past participle dogsbodied)

1. To act as a dogsbody, to do menial work:
   • 1989, Tim Parks, Family Planning

     Perhaps because, having been brought up in all those different countries and languages, and then studying economics of all things for just a year, followed by four years dogsbodying for a haulage company, he had never got any serious reading done.

References

• “dogsbody”, A.Word.A.Day, Anu Garg, Wordsmith.org
• “And, of course, the poloponies, Word Detective, Evan Morris, 1997–07–01