yeoman's service

noun

Etymology

An allusion to stouthearted, dutiful labor performed by a yeoman.

Definitions

  1. Arduous work, performed in a vigorous, committed manner.

    • Near-synonym: good job
    • He hath done yeoman's service, and proved himself staunch and faithful.
  2. Reliable, useful, capable service.

    • I once did hold it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair and labour'd much How to forget that learning, but, sir, now It did me yeoman's service.
    • [O]n many occasions his liberality did him genuine yeoman's service.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for yeoman's service. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA