Point of usage - "Schlep" is most commonly used as a verb. As in, "Oy, you had to drop out of college and schlep all the way to California, just to listen to some schmuck make himself a macher?" It's true, you could say "that was a long schlep" - but other than meaning a long or difficult physical journey, (think getting home from Vegas on a Sunday), when schlep is used as a noun, it almost always refers to a person, short for schlepper, or one who schleps. This is someone at the bottom of the totem pole. As in "what kind of schlep wants to deal with this guy's verkakte ego?"
