make light work of

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

Make light work of cooking with the help of Philips ' electronic HR2898 food processor.
But she made light work of polishing off the shopping at a supermarket near her West London home.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review.

Common questions

What does “make light work of” mean?

Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.

Is “make light work of” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.