work | | |
1. n. (heading) Employment. | |
2. n. Labour, occupation, job. | |
My work involves a lot of travel. | |
3. n. The place where one is employed. | |
He hasn’t come home yet, he’s still at work. | |
4. n. One's employer | |
“I want to go to the R.E.M. reunion concert but I'm not sure if my work will let me off.” | |
5. n. (heading) Effort. | |
6. n. 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. | |
7. n. Sustained human effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result. | |
We know what we must do. Let's go to work. | |
8. n. Something on which effort is expended. | |
There's lots of work waiting for me at the office. | |
9. n. (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. | |
10. n. (physics, more generally) A measure of energy that is usefully extracted from a process. | |
11. n. Sustained effort to achieve a goal or result, especially overcoming obstacles. | |
We don't have much time. Let's get to work piling up those sandbags. | |
12. n. Product; the result of effort.: | |
13. n. (often, in combination) The result of a particular manner of production. | |
There's a lot of guesswork involved. | |
14. n. (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. | |
15. n. A literary, artistic, or intellectual production. | |
It is a work of art. | |
the poetic works of Alexander Pope | |
16. n. A fortification. | |
William the Conqueror fortified many castles, throwing up new ramparts, bastions and all manner of works. | |
17. n. (slang) The staging of events to appear as real. | |
18. n. (mining) Ore before it is dressed. | |
19. n. The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.) | |
Tell me you're using clean works at least. | |
20. v. (intransitive) To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers. | |
He’s working in a bar. | |
21. v. 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 | |
22. v. Followed by as. Said of one's job title | |
I work as a cleaner. | |
23. v. Followed by for. Said of a company or individual who employs. | |
she works for Microsoft | |
he works for the president | |
24. v. 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 | |
25. v. 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 | |
26. v. To embroider with thread. | |
27. v. To set into action. | |
He worked the levers. | |
28. v. To cause to ferment. | |
29. v. (intransitive) To ferment. | |
30. v. To exhaust, by working. | |
The mine was worked until the last scrap of ore had been extracted. | |
31. v. To shape, form, or improve a material. | |
He used pliers to work the wire into shape. | |
32. v. To operate in a certain place, area, or speciality. | |
she works the night clubs | |
the salesman works the Midwest | |
this artist works mostly in acrylics | |
33. v. To operate in or through; as, to work the phones. | |
34. v. To provoke or excite; to influence. | |
The rock musician worked the crowd of young girls into a frenzy. | |
35. v. To use or manipulate to one’s advantage. | |
She knows how to work the system. | |
36. v. To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence. | |
I cannot work a miracle. | |
37. v. To cause to work. | |
He is working his servants hard. | |
38. v. (intransitive) To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for. | |
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 | |
39. v. (intransitive, figuratively) To influence. | |
They worked on her to join the group. | |
40. v. (intransitive) To effect by gradual degrees; as, to work into the earth. | |
41. v. (intransitive) To move in an agitated manner. | |
His fingers worked with tension. | |
A ship works in a heavy sea. | |
42. v. (intransitive) To behave in a certain way when handled | |
this dough does not work easily; the soft metal works well | |
43. v. (transitive, with two objects, poetic) To cause (someone) to feel (something); to do unto somebody (something, whether good or bad). | |
44. v. (obsolete, intransitive) To hurt; to ache. | |