Dictionary

work

see also: Work

Pronunciation

enPR: wûrk, IPA: /wɜː(ɹ)k/
- (RP) IPA: /wɜːk/, [wɜːk]
  - (MLE) IPA: [wɜːk], [wœːk]
  - (Broad Geordie) IPA: [wɔːk]
  - (Liverpool) IPA: [wɛːk]
  - (DE) IPA: [wʊːɹk]
- (America) IPA: /wɝk/, [wɚk]
  - (New York City, Southern US, dated) IPA: /wɜɪ̯k/
- (Australia) IPA: /wɵːk/
- (New Zealand) IPA: /wøːk/

Etymology 1

From Middle English work, werk, from Old English weorc, from Proto-West Germanic *werk, from Proto-Germanic *werką, from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom.

Akin to Scots wark, Saterland Frisian Wierk, Western Frisian wurk, Dutch werk, German Werk, nds-de Wark, Danish værk, Norwegian Bokmål verk, Norwegian Nynorsk verk, Swedish verk and yrke, Icelandic verk, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌺𐌹, Ancient Greek ἔργον (from ϝέργον), Avestan 𐬬𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬰, Armenian գործ, Albanian argëtoj.

Noun

work

(uncountable) Employment.
1. labour, occupation, job.
  Synonyms: Thesaurus:occupation
  My work involves a lot of travel.
  - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iv], page 177 ↗, column 1:
    Come on Neriſſa, I haue worke in hand / That you yet know not of; wee'll ſee our husbands / Before they thinke of vs?
  - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 2 Chronicles 31:21 ↗:
    And in euery worke that he began […] he did it with all his heart, and prospered.
  - 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗, page 257 ↗:
    Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew’s cap and bells.
2. The place where one is employed.
  He hasn’t come home yet; he’s still at work.
3. (by extension) One's employer.
  I want to go to the reunion concert, but I'm not sure if my work will give me the time off.
4. (dated) A factory; a works.
  - 1917, Platers' Guide, page 246:
    In trials of a Martin furnace in a steel work at Remscheiden, Germany, a lining of zirconia was found in good condition after […]
(uncountable) Effort.
1. effort expended on a particular task.
  Synonyms: Thesaurus:work
  Holding a brick over your head is hard work. It takes a lot of work to write a dictionary.
2. Sustained effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result.
  We know what we must do. Let's go to work.
  We don't have much time. Let's get to work piling up those sandbags.
  - 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC ↗, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwptej;view=1up;seq=5 page 01]:
    The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
3. Something on which effort is expended.
  There's lots of work waiting for me at the office.
4. (physics) A measure of energy expended in moving an object; most commonly, force times distance. No work is done if the object does not move.
  Work is done against friction to drag a bag along the ground.
5. (physics, more generally) A measure of energy that is usefully extracted from a process.
Product; the result of effort.
1. (uncountable, often, in combination) The result of a particular manner of production.
  There's a lot of guesswork involved.
2. (uncountable, often, in combination) Something produced using the specified material or tool.
  We've got some paperwork to do before we can get started. The piece was decorated with intricate filigree work.
3. (countable) A literary, artistic, or intellectual production.
  It is a work of art.
  the poetic works of Alexander Pope
  - c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene i], page 140 ↗, column 2:
    To leaue no Rubs nor Botches in the Worke:
  - 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗, lines 730–732:
    The haſty multitude / Admiring enter'd, and the work ſome praiſe / And ſome the Architect:
  - 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
    “[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic? […] ”
4. (countable) A fortification.
  William the Conqueror fortified many castles, throwing up new ramparts, bastions and all manner of works.
(uncountable, slang, professional wrestling) The staging of events to appear as real.
(mining) Ore before it is dressed.
(slang, plural only) The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.)
Tell me you're using clean works at least.
- 1977 [1953], William S. Burroughs, edited by Allen Ginsberg, Junky, Penguin Books, →ISBN, pages 25–26 ↗:
  He gave me a sour look. “All right is it? Well, you shoot some then.” I cooked up a grain and got out my works ready to take the shot.

Translations

French: travail, [6] œuvre, [6] création
German: Arbeit
Italian: lavoro, impiego, occupazione
Portuguese: trabalho, emprego
Russian: рабо́та
Spanish: trabajo, curro (colloquial), laburo

Translations

French: travail
German: Arbeit
Italian: posto di lavoro
Portuguese: trabalho, emprego
Russian: рабо́та
Spanish: trabajo, tajo (colloquial), laburo

Translations

French: travail
German: Arbeit
Italian: lavoro, impegno, fatica
Portuguese: trabalho
Russian: рабо́та
Spanish: trabajo

Translations

Portuguese: obra
Russian: труд
Spanish: obra, trabajo

Translations

Portuguese: obra

Translations

French: travail, œuvre
German: Werk
Italian: lavoro, opera, creazione
Portuguese: obra, trabalho
Russian: рабо́та
Spanish: obra

Translations

French: travail
German: Arbeit
Italian: lavoro
Portuguese: trabalho
Russian: рабо́та
Spanish: trabajo

Translations

German: Arbeit
Italian: lavoro
Portuguese: trabalho
Russian: рабо́та

Translations

Italian: fortificazione
Portuguese: fortificação
Russian: укрепле́ние
Spanish: obras

Etymology 2

From Middle English werken and worchen, from Old English wyrċan and wircan (Mercian), from Proto-Germanic *wurkijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥ǵyéti, from the root *werǵ-.

Verb

work (works, present participle working; simple past and past participle worked)

(intransitive) To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.
He's working in a bar.
1. Followed by in (or at, etc.) Said of one's workplace (building), or one's department, or one's trade (sphere of business).
  I work in a national park.
  She works in the human resources department.
  He mostly works in logging but sometimes works in carpentry too.
2. Followed by as. Said of one's job title
  - 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗, page 287 ↗:
    This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.
  I work as a cleaner.
3. Followed by for. Said of a company or individual who employs.
  She works for Microsoft.
  He works for the President.
4. Followed by with. General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients.
  I work closely with my Canadian counterparts.
  You work with computers, right?
  She works with the homeless people from the suburbs.
(intransitive) To effect by gradual degrees;
to work into the earth
(transitive) To effect by gradual degrees.
He worked his way through the crowd.
The dye worked its way through.
Using some tweezers, she worked the bee sting out of her hand.
- 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC ↗, Act I, scene iv, page 16 ↗:
  So the pure limpid Stream, when foul with Stains / Of ruſhing Torrents, and deſcending Rains, / Work’s it ſelf clear, and as it runs, refines; / ’Till by Degrees, the floating Mirrour ſhines, / […]
(transitive) To embroider with thread.
(transitive) To set into action.
He worked the levers.
(transitive) To cause to ferment.
(intransitive) To ferment.
- 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “X. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC ↗, paragraph 992, page 255 ↗:
  For Inanimate Things, you may trie the Force of Imagination, vpon Staying the Working of Beere, when the Barme is put in; Or vpon the Comming of Butter, or Cheeſe, after the Cherming, or the Rennet bee put in.
(transitive) To exhaust, by working.
The mine was worked until the last scrap of ore had been extracted.
- 1774, Edward Long, chapter 11, in The History of Jamaica. Or, General Survey of the Antient and Modern State of that Island, volume 2, page 240 ↗:
  They were told of a ſilver mine, that had been worked by the Spaniards, ſomewhere in the Healthſhire Hills, in St. Catharine; but they were not able to diſcover it.
(transitive) To shape, form, or improve a material.
He used pliers to work the wire into shape.
(transitive) To operate in a certain place, area, or speciality.
She works the night clubs.
The salesman works the Midwest.
(transitive) To operate in or through; as, to work the phones.
(transitive) To provoke or excite; to influence.
The rock musician worked the crowd of young girls into a frenzy.
(transitive) To use or manipulate to one’s advantage.
She knows how to work the system.
(transitive, law) To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.
I cannot work a miracle.
- 2022, Sawnee Electric Membership Corporation Bylaws ↗, Article III, Section 3.01:
  Failure to hold the annual meeting, or to otherwise conduct the business of the annual meeting, shall not work a forfeiture or dissolution of the Cooperative.
(transitive) To cause to work.
He is working his servants hard.
(intransitive) To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for.
- 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^{[https://web.archive.org/web/20230608183226/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/may/10/conscious-computing-twitter-facebook-google]}, volume 189, number 2, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN ↗, →OCLC ↗, archived from the original ↗ on 2023-06-08, page 48:
  The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about "creating compelling content", or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing", "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. Partly, this is a result of how online advertising has traditionally worked: advertisers pay for clicks, and a click is a click, however it's obtained.
He pointed at the car and asked, "Does it work"?
He looked at the bottle of pain pills, wondering if they would work.
My plan didn't work.
(intransitive, figuratively) To influence.
They worked on her to join the group.
(intransitive) To move in an agitated manner.
His fingers worked with tension.
A ship works in a heavy sea.
- 1705, J[oseph] Addison, “Brescia, Verona, Padua”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗, page 54 ↗:
  Here vex’d with Winter Storms Benacus raves, / Confus’d with working Sands and rolling Waves; / Rough and tumultuous like a Sea it lyes, / So loud the Tempeſt roars, ſo high the Billows riſe.
(intransitive) To behave in a certain way when handled
This dough does not work easily.
The soft metal works well.
(ditransitive, poetic) To cause (someone) to feel (something); to do unto somebody (something, whether good or bad).
- 1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. [Night 557.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume VI, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC ↗, pages 51–52 ↗:
  And indeed I blamed myself and sore repented me of having taken compassion on him and continued in this condition, suffering fatigue not to be described, till I said to myself, “I wrought him a weal and he requited me with my ill; by Allah, never more will I do any man a service so long as I live!”
- 1909, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Ballad of One-eyed Mike”, in Ballads of a Cheechako, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC ↗, stanza 12, pages 54–55 ↗:
  So sad it seemed, and its cheek-bones gleamed, and its fingers flicked the shore; / And it lapped and lay in a weary way, and its hands met to implore; / That I gently said: "Poor, restless dead, I would never work you woe; / Though the wrong you rue you can ne'er undo, I forgave you long ago."
(obsolete, intransitive) To hurt; to ache.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI:
  ‘I wolde hit were so,’ seyde the Kynge, ‘but I may nat stonde, my hede worchys so—’
(slang, transitive) To pull off; to wear, perform, etc. successfully or to advantage.
I would have never thought those pieces would go together, but she is working it like nobody's business.

Conjugation

Conjugation of work

infinitive	(to) work
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	work	worked, wrought†
2nd-person singular	work, workest^†	worked, wrought†, workedst^†
3rd-person singular	works, worketh^†	worked, wrought†
plural	work	worked, wrought†

subjunctive	work	worked, wrought†

imperative	work	—

participles	working	worked, wrought†