Definition of "work"

(uncountable) Employment.

1. labour, occupation, job.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Come on Neriſſa, I haue worke in hand / That you yet know not of; wee'll ſee our husbands / Before they thinke of vs?

     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, [Act III, scene iv], page 177, column 1

   • And in euery worke that he began […] he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

     1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 2 Chronicles 31:21

   • 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.

     1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 257

2. The place where one is employed.  examples

3. (by extension) One's employer.  examples

4. (dated) A factory; a works.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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

(uncountable) Effort.

1. effort expended on a particular task.  examples

2. Sustained effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     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, page 01

3. Something on which effort is expended.  examples

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.  examples

5. (physics, more generally) A measure of energy that is usefully extracted from a process.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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

Product; the result of effort.

1. (uncountable, often in combination) The result of a particular manner of production.  examples

2. (uncountable, often in combination) Something produced using the specified material or tool.  examples

3. (countable) A literary, artistic, or intellectual production.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • To leaue no Rubs nor Botches in the Worke:

     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, [Act III, scene i], page 140, column 2

   • The haſty multitude / Admiring enter'd, and the work ſome praiſe / And ſome the Architect:

     1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 730–732

   • “[…] 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? […] ”

     1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

4. (countable) A fortification.  examples

(uncountable, slang, professional wrestling) The staging of events to appear as real.

(mining) Ore before it is dressed.  examples

(slang, plural only) The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.)  quotations

(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).  examples

2. Followed by as. Said of one's job title  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 287

3. Followed by for. Said of a company or individual who employs.  examples

4. Followed by with. General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients.  examples

(intransitive) To effect by gradual degrees;  examples

(transitive) To effect by gradual degrees.  quotations  examples

(transitive) To embroider with thread.  examples

(transitive) To set into action.  examples

(transitive) To cause to ferment.  examples

(intransitive) To ferment.  quotations  examples

(transitive) To exhaust, by working.  quotations  examples

(transitive) To shape, form, or improve a material.  examples

(transitive) To operate in a certain place, area, or speciality.  examples

(transitive) To operate in or through; as, to work the phones.  examples

(transitive) To provoke or excite; to influence.  examples

(transitive) To use or manipulate to one’s advantage.  examples

(transitive, law) To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.  quotations  examples

(transitive) To cause to work.  examples

(intransitive) To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for.  quotations  examples

(intransitive, figuratively) To influence.  examples

(intransitive) To move in an agitated manner.  quotations  examples

(intransitive) To behave in a certain way when handled  examples

(ditransitive, poetic) To cause (someone) to feel (something); to do unto somebody (something, whether good or bad).  quotations  examples

(obsolete, intransitive) To hurt; to ache.  quotations

(slang, transitive) To pull off; to wear, perform, etc. successfully or to advantage.