Work

Work, wurk, 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. [A.S. weorc; Ice. verk, Ger. werk; further conn. with Gr. ergon.]