schlep

verb

1. (Jewish, informal, slang, transitive)To carry, drag, or lug.

   “I'm exhausted after schlepping those packages around all day.”

   “Queen Elizabeth will schlep along 95 pieces of baggage on her trip here.”

   “Yet what does the universe do to me? It schleps me to Sherwood Forest—and a Sherwood Forest like spotlessly sans Kevin Costner, no less—and then schleps me to your house, then schleps me to God—and I do mean God—knows where, […]”

   “My son has a terrible marriage. His lazy wife lies in bed all morning and doesn't even make him breakfast. Then she spends the afternoon at the beauty parlor, and as soon as my son gets home from a hard day's work, she shleps him out to a restaurant. My daughter, on the other hand, has a perfect marriage. Her husband lets her sleep late in the morning, insists that she go to the beauty parlor, and then takes her out to dinner every night.”

   “Schlepping is Yiddish for "toting or dragging around," and a quintessentially New York City kind of term. New Yorkers schlep food, household goods, and any conceivable purchase on the subways, up the stairs, on elevators, and on buses. Some also schlep goods on bicycles and motor scooters. Whichever downtown you choose, you'll practice your own version of schlepping.”

2. (Jewish, informal, intransitive, slang)To go, as on an errand; to carry out a task.

   “I schlepped down to the store for some milk.”

   “'I've schlepped all over town trying to find you.' Her tone was almost scolding as she stepped forward and grabbed her daughter in an elaborate hug.”

3. (Jewish, informal, intransitive, slang)To act in a slovenly, lazy, or sloppy manner.

   “I just schlepped around the house on Sunday.”

noun

1. (Jewish, New-York-City, informal, slang)A long or burdensome journey.

   “Sure you can go across town to get that, but it'd be a schlep.”

   “The walk was a schlep, but it was a schlep Wallace and I did together. I was singing the song about the letters of the alphabet and about alligators and balloons from the Maurice Sendak book that Carole King put to music.”

2. (Jewish, New-York-City, informal, slang)A boring person, a drag; a good-for-nothing person.

   “For every genuine, sincere, perceptive resident who is capable and willing to work and sacrifice, you've got 200-plus who are permanently classifiable as either hustlers, rip-off artists, freeloaders, ganefs, shleps, or out-and-out shmucks!”

   “You dug Albert King. You notice his band is absolutely nothing. They were dead schleps, dead schleps playing behind him and Albert was the only one who really measured up to Albert's own sound. It was like they were old tired blues players and it was a drag. But Albert was exquisite.”

   “The shocking thing was that he was forty and still chasing girls, still a schlep who was obviously stuck in his adolescent pursuit of sex.”

   “Economic scholars might assert that unscholarly, middle class schleps outside the field of economics have no authority to write essays that make such ignorant claims.”

3. (Jewish, New-York-City, informal, slang)A sloppy or slovenly person.

   “My father had class? I was completely taken aback. I had never heard my father described that way. To me, he was not a European gentleman but a schlep, someone who preferred chinos to gabardine, comfort to style. My mother used to say that if she hadn't made him go shopping, he would still be wearing the same ugly suits he wore in the fifties.”

4. (Jewish, New-York-City, informal, slang)A “pull” or influence.

   “He must have had a lot of schlep to get such good seats.”