hewers of wood and drawers of water

noun

Those who drudge, or are made to work hard; those who do menial or servile work at the behest of others; physical labourers.

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Meanings

nounhewers of wood and drawers of water pl (plural only)
  1. pluralplural onlyThose who drudge, or are made to work hard; those who do menial or servile work at the behest of others; physical labourers.

    Now therefore ye are curſed, and there ſhall none of you bee freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood, and drawers of water, for the houſe of my God.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joshua 9:23, column 1
    4 more examples

    And the Princes ſaid vnto them, Let them liue, (but let them bee hewers of wood, and drawers of water, vnto all the Congregation,) as the Princes had promiſed them.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joshua 9:21, column 1

    And Ioſhua made them that day, hewers of wood, and drawers of water for the Congregation, and for the Altar of the Lord, euen vnto this day, in the place which he ſhould chooſe.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joshua 9:27, column 1

    But what of that vast number of the human kind who were always in the background? What of the hewers of wood and drawers of water, the swineherds, the shepherds, the carpenters, the hedgers and cobblers?

    1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co., page 13

    All these groups are among the hewers of wood and drawers of water whom Marx assured that they would have nothing but their chains to lose if they rose against their oppressors.

    1991, Martin Ohaeri Ijere, Women in Nigerian Economy, page 41

Origin

A biblical term, first mentioned in Joshua 9:21 (but compare Deuteronomy 29:10).

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Cite this entry
APA

hewers of wood and drawers of water. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hewers%20of%20wood%20and%20drawers%20of%20water

MLA

“hewers of wood and drawers of water.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hewers%20of%20wood%20and%20drawers%20of%20water. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hewers of wood and drawers of water,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hewers%20of%20wood%20and%20drawers%20of%20water.

Source: hewers of wood and drawers of water on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.