Work
[wɜːk] or [wɝk]
Definition
(noun.) activity directed toward making or doing something; 'she checked several points needing further work'.
(noun.) a product produced or accomplished through the effort or activity or agency of a person or thing; 'it is not regarded as one of his more memorable works'; 'the symphony was hailed as an ingenious work'; 'he was indebted to the pioneering work of John Dewey'; 'the work of an active imagination'; 'erosion is the work of wind or water over time'.
(noun.) (physics) a manifestation of energy; the transfer of energy from one physical system to another expressed as the product of a force and the distance through which it moves a body in the direction of that force; 'work equals force times distance'.
(verb.) shape, form, or improve a material; 'work stone into tools'; 'process iron'; 'work the metal'.
(verb.) move in an agitated manner; 'His fingers worked with tension'.
(verb.) proceed towards a goal or along a path or through an activity; 'work your way through every problem or task'; 'She was working on her second martini when the guests arrived'; 'Start from the bottom and work towards the top'.
(verb.) cause to work; 'he is working his servants hard'.
(verb.) be employed; 'Is your husband working again?'; 'My wife never worked'; 'Do you want to work after the age of 60?'; 'She never did any work because she inherited a lot of money'; 'She works as a waitress to put herself through college'.
(verb.) exert oneself by doing mental or physical work for a purpose or out of necessity; 'I will work hard to improve my grades'; 'she worked hard for better living conditions for the poor'.
(verb.) have an effect or outcome; often the one desired or expected; 'The voting process doesn't work as well as people thought'; 'How does your idea work in practice?'; 'This method doesn't work'; 'The breaks of my new car act quickly'; 'The medicine works only if you take it with a lot of water'.
(verb.) operate in a certain place, area, or specialty; 'She works the night clubs'; 'The salesman works the Midwest'; 'This artist works mostly in acrylics'.
(verb.) arrive at a certain condition through repeated motion; 'The stitches of the hem worked loose after she wore the skirt many times'.
(verb.) gratify and charm, usually in order to influence; 'the political candidate worked the crowds'.
(verb.) provoke or excite; 'The rock musician worked the crowd of young girls into a frenzy'.
(verb.) behave in a certain way when handled; 'This dough does not work easily'; 'The soft metal works well'.
(verb.) operate in or through; 'Work the phones'.
(verb.) cause to operate or function; 'This pilot works the controls'; 'Can you work an electric drill?'.
(verb.) move into or onto; 'work the raisins into the dough'; 'the student worked a few jokes into his presentation'; 'work the body onto the flatbed truck'.
Editor: Maureen--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Exertion of strength or faculties; physical or intellectual effort directed to an end; industrial activity; toil; employment; sometimes, specifically, physically labor.
(n.) The matter on which one is at work; that upon which one spends labor; material for working upon; subject of exertion; the thing occupying one; business; duty; as, to take up one's work; to drop one's work.
(n.) That which is produced as the result of labor; anything accomplished by exertion or toil; product; performance; fabric; manufacture; in a more general sense, act, deed, service, effect, result, achievement, feat.
(n.) Specifically: (a) That which is produced by mental labor; a composition; a book; as, a work, or the works, of Addison. (b) Flowers, figures, or the like, wrought with the needle; embroidery.
(n.) Structures in civil, military, or naval engineering, as docks, bridges, embankments, trenches, fortifications, and the like; also, the structures and grounds of a manufacturing establishment; as, iron works; locomotive works; gas works.
(n.) The moving parts of a mechanism; as, the works of a watch.
(n.) Manner of working; management; treatment; as, unskillful work spoiled the effect.
(n.) The causing of motion against a resisting force. The amount of work is proportioned to, and is measured by, the product of the force into the amount of motion along the direction of the force. See Conservation of energy, under Conservation, Unit of work, under Unit, also Foot pound, Horse power, Poundal, and Erg.
(n.) Ore before it is dressed.
(n.) Performance of moral duties; righteous conduct.
(n.) To exert one's self for a purpose; to put forth effort for the attainment of an object; to labor; to be engaged in the performance of a task, a duty, or the like.
(n.) Hence, in a general sense, to operate; to act; to perform; as, a machine works well.
(n.) Hence, figuratively, to be effective; to have effect or influence; to conduce.
(n.) To carry on business; to be engaged or employed customarily; to perform the part of a laborer; to labor; to toil.
(n.) To be in a state of severe exertion, or as if in such a state; to be tossed or agitated; to move heavily; to strain; to labor; as, a ship works in a heavy sea.
(n.) To make one's way slowly and with difficulty; to move or penetrate laboriously; to proceed with effort; -- with a following preposition, as down, out, into, up, through, and the like; as, scheme works out by degrees; to work into the earth.
(n.) To ferment, as a liquid.
(n.) To act or operate on the stomach and bowels, as a cathartic.
(v. t.) To labor or operate upon; to give exertion and effort to; to prepare for use, or to utilize, by labor.
(v. t.) To produce or form by labor; to bring forth by exertion or toil; to accomplish; to originate; to effect; as, to work wood or iron into a form desired, or into a utensil; to work cotton or wool into cloth.
(v. t.) To produce by slow degrees, or as if laboriously; to bring gradually into any state by action or motion.
(v. t.) To influence by acting upon; to prevail upon; to manage; to lead.
(v. t.) To form with a needle and thread or yarn; especially, to embroider; as, to work muslin.
(v. t.) To set in motion or action; to direct the action of; to keep at work; to govern; to manage; as, to work a machine.
(v. t.) To cause to ferment, as liquor.
Typed by Abe
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. [1]. Act, operate, be in action.[2]. Labor, toil, moil, drudge, strive, exert one's self, be diligent, be at work.[3]. Move, perform, succeed, get on.[4]. Ferment, effervesce.[5]. Heave, be tossed, be agitated.
v. a. [1]. Labor upon, operate upon.[2]. Produce, originate, accomplish, effect, bring about.[3]. Keep at work.[4]. Exert, strain.[5]. Embroider.
n. [1]. Toil, labor (that fatigues), drudgery.[2]. Occupation, exertion, employment, business.[3]. Product (of labour), performance, production, fruit, achievement, deed, action, feat.[4]. Fabric, structure, manufacture.[5]. Composition, book, literary production.[6]. Management, treatment.
Checked by Leroy
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Exertion, effort, toil, labor, employment, performance, production, product,effect, result, composition, achievement, operation, is_sue, fruit
ANT:Effortlessness, inertia, rest, inoperativeness, non-employment, nonperformance,non-production, abortion, miscarriage, frustration, neutralization,fruitlessness
Typist: Xavier
Definition
n. effort directed to an end: employment: the result of work: that on which one works: anything made or done: embroidery: deed: effect: a literary composition: a book: management: an establishment for any manufacture a factory (gener. in pl.): (physics) the product of a force by the component displacement of its point and application in the direction of the force: (pl.) (fort.) walls trenches &c.: (theol.) acts performed in obedience to the Divine law: a manufactory workshop place of work (esp. in pl.): mechanism—e.g. of a watch.—v.i. to make efforts to attain anything: to perform: to be in action: to be occupied in business or labour: to produce effects to make progress with difficulty to strain or labour: to ferment: to be agitated to seethe: to embroider.—v.t. to make by labour: to bring into any state by action: to effect: to carry on operations in: to put in motion: to purge: to influence: to manage: to solve: to achieve: to cause to ferment: to provoke agitate: to keep employed: to embroider:—pa.t. and pa.p. worked or wrought (rawt).—ns. Workabil′ity Work′ableness.—adjs. Work′able that may be worked; Work′aday work-day toiling plodding.—ns. Work′-bag -bas′ket a bag basket for holding materials for work esp. needlework; Work′-box a lady's box for holding materials for work; Work′-day a day for work: a week-day.—adj. pertaining to a work-day.—ns. Work′er a toiler performer: among insects the neuter or undeveloped female; Work′-fell′ow one who is engaged in the same work with another.—ns.pl. Work′folk Work′folks persons engaged in manual labour.—adj. Work′ful industrious.—ns. Work′girl a girl or young woman employed in some manual labour; Work′house a house where any work or manufacture is carried on: a house of shelter for the poor who are made to work; Work′ing action operation: fermentation: (pl.) the parts of a mine &c. where actual operations are in hand.—adj. active: labouring: connected with labour.—ns. Work′ing-beam the oscillating lever of a steam-engine connecting the piston-rod and the crank-shaft a walking-beam; Work′ing-class manual labourers (often in pl.); Wor′king-day a day on which work is done as distinguished from the Sabbath and holidays: the period of actual work each day.—adj. laborious: plodding.—ns. Work′ing-draw′ing a drawing of the details of a building by which the builders are guided in their work; Work′ing-house (Shak.) workshop; Work′ing-par′ty a group of persons who do some work in common or who meet periodically for such a purpose; Work′man Work′ing-man a man who works or labours esp. manually: a skilful artificer.—adjs. Work′man-like like a workman: becoming a skilful workman: well performed; Work′manly becoming a skilful workman.—adv. in a manner becoming a skilful workman.—ns. Work′manship the skill of a workman: manner of making: work done; Work′-mas′ter a skilled or directing workman esp. in some great undertaking.—n.pl. Work′-peo′ple people engaged in labour.—ns. Work′room a room for working in; Work′shop a shop where work is done.—adj. Work′some industrious.—ns. Work′-tā′ble a small table used by ladies at their needlework; Work′-woman a woman who makes her living by some manual labour.—Work of art a production in one of the fine arts; Work double tides to work through continuous tides night and day; Work in to intermix to make to penetrate; Work into to make way gradually into: to change alter; Work off to separate and throw off to get rid of circulate: to produce as by work esp. to print; Work on or upon to act or operate upon to influence; Work one's passage to give one's work on board in place of passage-money; Work out to effect by continued labour: to expiate: to exhaust: to solve or study anything fully out; Work up to excite rouse: to create by slow degrees to expand elaborate: to use up as material: (naut.) to set at an irksome or needless task; Work with to strive to influence by appeals &c.—Board of Works the body which has the management and control of public works and buildings of which the expenses are defrayed from the crown revenues or parliamentary grants; Have one's work cut out to have one's work prescribed: to have a difficult task before one; Make short work of (see Short); Out of work out of working order: without employment; Set to work to employ in some work: to engage in some work; Seven Works of Corporal Mercy to feed the hungry give drink to the thirsty to clothe the naked visit prisoners visit the sick harbour strangers bury the dead—of Spiritual Mercy to convert sinners instruct the ignorant counsel the doubtful console the afflicted bear wrongs patiently forgive injuries pray for the living and the dead.
Typist: Portia
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream that you are hard at work, denotes that you will win merited success by concentration of energy. To see others at work, denotes that hopeful conditions will surround you. To look for work, means that you will be benefited by some unaccountable occurrence.
Inputed by Eunice
Examples
- But thy rest agen to-morrow's work, my dear. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- There his work was received with applause. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Have you found your first day's work harder than you expected? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- He tried to look knowing over the Latin grammar when little Rawdon showed him what part of that work he was in. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- God will protect you; for you have undertaken His work, I answered. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- I counted a' th' clocks in the town striking afore I'd leave my work. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- A hard-working man, and not overstrong, he would return to his home from the machine-shop where he was employed, and throw himself on the bed night after night to rest. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Perhaps I had better say, that you must submit to be mildly bored rather than to go on working. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Scientists in both England and America had realized the possibility of the telegraph before Morse built his first working outfit in his rooms on Washington Square. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- I should think from the color of his clothes that he is working in the quarries. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- A very simple illustration of the working of a steam engine is given in Figure 128. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- Taking the horse power as the equivalent of the work of five men, the work of steam is equivalent to that of a population of 500,000,000 working men. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- The Unquenchables had done their best to be worthy of the name, for like elves they had worked by night and conjured up a comical surprise. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- He took the clip out of the submachine gun and worked the lock back and forth. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- In the hydraulic form of elevator, a motor worked by water is employed to lift the car, although steam power is also employed to raise the water. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- That catastrophe and other events may have worked upon Mr. Osborne. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- When the cranes or other apparatus to be worked thereby are in operation, water is passed from the cylinder through a small pipe which actuates the crane through hydraulic pressure. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The operator had worked so mechanically that he had handled the news without the slightest knowledge of its significance. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- On the extreme right, however, his reserve brigade carried the enemy's works twice, and was twice driven therefrom by infantry. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- These works had a great vogue in France and Europe. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Although many statements may be found in works on natural history to this effect, I cannot find even one which seems to me of any weight. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- I was informed he wrote several small occasional works, but only one of them was printed, which I remember to have seen several years since. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- All my works! Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Of the public Works and Institution which are necessary for facilitating particular Branches of Commerce. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- I thought of myself, lying here, when that first great change was being wrought at home. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Wines, currants, and wrought silks, were the only goods which did not fall within this rule, having other and more advantageous allowances. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- He never looked at her; so she might study him unobserved, and note the changes which even this short time had wrought in him. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Davoust and Massena, who wrought in many a battle tragedy, are here, and so also is Rachel, of equal renown in mimic tragedy on the stage. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- But you may easily carry the help too far, he said, and get over-wrought yourself. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Many coal mines in Scotland are wrought in this manner, and can be wrought in no other. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Typed by Gordon