yeoman's service

alternative yeoman service

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

   Near-synonym: good job

   1 more example

   He hath done yeoman's service, and proved himself staunch and faithful.

   1891, Charlotte Mary Yonge, chapter 7, in Unknown to History

   Synonyms: yeoman's work, yeoman's labor, good job

2. idiomaticReliable, useful, capable service.

   [O]n many occasions his liberality did him genuine yeoman's service.

   1827, [Walter Scott], chapter 1, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC

   1 more example

   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.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]