Meaning

4 senses
  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.

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

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

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

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

More definitions
  • (Yiddish) an awkward and stupid person
  • a tedious or difficult journey

Origin

From Yiddish שלעפּן (shlepn, “to drag”), from Middle High German slepen, from Middle Low G

From Yiddish שלעפּן (shlepn, “to drag”), from Middle High German slepen, from Middle Low German slêpen, from or related to Old High German sleifen (“to drag”) and slifan (“to slip”), from Proto-West Germanic *sleupan.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: schleps
Singularschlep
Pluralschleps

regular

Synonyms

2 synonyms
Close in meaning
  • (Yiddish) an awkward and stupid person:shleppershlep
  • a tedious or difficult journey:shlep

Word family

1 related words
Derivedschleppy

See also

neighbours in the dictionary

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

schlep — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto