Root Canal
Noun · Slang & Abbreviations
Definitions
A task everyone expects to be painful but necessary. In engineering slang, calling a migration or cleanup a root canal means no one is excited, but everyone agrees avoiding it will only make the future worse.
In plain English: A painful but necessary technical task.
Example: "Untangling the old permissions model was a root canal project, but the team finally accepted that every month of delay just added more painful special cases."