Arduous job, initially, sawing wood (4)
I believe the answer is:
slog
'arduous job' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'initially sawing wood' is the wordplay.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
'wood' becomes 'log' (a log is a piece of wood).
The initial letter of 'sawing' is 's'.
's'+'log'='SLOG'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for slog that I've seen before include "Hit hard - hard work" , "Long tedious task" , "Very tiring work" , "almighty wallop" , "Walk hard carrying logs?" .)