work

Etymology 1

From Middle English work, werk, from Old English weorc, from Proto-Germanic *werką, from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom; akin to Scots wark, Saterland Frisian Wierk, West Frisian wurk, Dutch werk, German Werk, German Low German Wark, Danish værk, Norwegian Bokmål verk, Norwegian Nynorsk verk, Swedish verk and yrke, Icelandic verk, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌺𐌹 (gawaurki), Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”) (from ϝέργον (wérgon)), Avestan 𐬬𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬰 (vər^əz, “to work, to perform”), Armenian գործ (gorc, “work”), Albanian argëtoj (“entertain, reward, please”). English cognates include bulwark, boulevard, energy, erg, georgic, liturgy, metallurgy, organ, surgeon, wright. Doublet of ergon.

noun

1. (uncountable) Employment.
   1. labour, occupation, job.
      My work involves a lot of travel.
   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.
      In trials of a Martin furnace in a steel work at Remscheiden, Germany, a lining of zirconia was found in good condition after […] 1917, Platers' Guide, page 246
2. (uncountable) Effort.
   1. effort expended on a particular task.
      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.
   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.
      Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning "vortex", and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work. 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist
3. 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
   4. (countable) A fortification.
      William the Conqueror fortified many castles, throwing up new ramparts, bastions and all manner of works.
4. (uncountable, slang, professional wrestling) The staging of events to appear as real.
5. (mining) Ore before it is dressed.
6. (slang, plural only) The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.)
   Tell me you're using clean works at least.
   If you buy new works, clean them before using them. If you share works, clean them before you or the next person uses them. Blood may be in your works even if you can't see it. Clean your works either with rubbing alcohol (available in drugstores), a household bleach solution (three tablespoons of bleach in a cup of water), or boiling water. 1996, Paul Harding Douglas, Laura Pinsky, The Essential AIDS Fact Book, Simon and Schuster, page 25

Etymology 2

From Middle English werken and worchen, from Old English wyrċan and wircan (Mercian), from Proto-Germanic *wurkijaną (“to work”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to work”). Cognate with Old Frisian werka, wirka, Old Saxon wirkian, Low German warken, Dutch werken, Old High German wurken (German wirken, werken and werkeln), Old Norse yrkja and orka, (Swedish yrka and orka), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (waurkjan).

verb

1. (intransitive) To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.
   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
   2. Followed by as. Said of one's job title
      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
      she works with the homeless people from the suburbs
2. (intransitive) To effect by gradual degrees;
   to work into the earth
3. (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
   So the pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains / Of rushing torrents and descending rains, / Works itself clear, and as it runs, refines, / Till by degrees the floating mirror shines. 1712, Joseph Addison, Cato, a Tragedy
4. (transitive) To embroider with thread.
5. (transitive) To set into action.
   He worked the levers.
6. (transitive) To cause to ferment.
7. (intransitive) To ferment.
   the working of beer when the barm is put in 1612, Francis Bacon, Essay on Natural History
8. (transitive) To exhaust, by working.
   The mine was worked until the last scrap of ore had been extracted.
   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. 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
9. (transitive) To shape, form, or improve a material.
   He used pliers to work the wire into shape.
10. (transitive) To operate in a certain place, area, or speciality.
    she works the night clubs
    the salesman works the Midwest
11. (transitive) To operate in or through; as, to work the phones.
12. (transitive) To provoke or excite; to influence.
    The rock musician worked the crowd of young girls into a frenzy.
13. (transitive) To use or manipulate to one’s advantage.
    She knows how to work the system.
14. (transitive, law) To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.
    I cannot work a miracle.
    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. 2022, Sawnee Electric Membership Corporation Bylaws, Article III, Section 3.01
15. (transitive) To cause to work.
    He is working his servants hard.
16. (intransitive) To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for.
    The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about[…]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. 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 48
    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
17. (intransitive, figurative) To influence.
    They worked on her to join the group.
18. (intransitive) To move in an agitated manner.
    His fingers worked with tension.
    A ship works in a heavy sea.
    confused with working sands and rolling waves 1705, Joseph Addison, Remarks on several parts of Italy, &c., in the years 1701, 1702, 1703
19. (intransitive) To behave in a certain way when handled
    this dough does not work easily; the soft metal works well
20. (ditransitive, poetic) To cause (someone) to feel (something); to do unto somebody (something, whether good or bad).
    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!" 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night
21. (obsolete, intransitive) To hurt; to ache.
    ‘I wolde hit were so,’ seyde the Kynge, ‘but I may nat stonde, my hede worchys so—’ 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI
22. (slang, transitive) To pull off; to wear, perform, etc. successfully or to advantage.
    I would never have thought those pieces would go together, but she is working it like nobody's business.