Noun

work (countable and uncountable, plural works)Category:English lemmas#WORKCategory:English nouns#WORKCategory:English uncountable nouns#WORKCategory:English countable nouns#WORKCategory:English countable nouns#WORKCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WORKCategory:Pages with entries#WORKCategory:Pages with 3 entries#WORK

1. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#WORK) Employment.
   1. Labour, occupation, job.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:occupation

      My work involves a lot of travel.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      • 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?

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

      • 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.

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

      • 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.

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

   2. The place where one is employed.

      He hasn’t come home yet; he’s still at work.Category:English terms with usage examples#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.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   4. (datedCategory:English dated terms#WORK) 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 […]

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

        Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
2. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#WORK) Effort.
   1. Effort expended on a particular task.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:work

      Holding a brick over your head is hard work. It takes a lot of work to write a dictionary.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

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

      We know what we must do. Let's go to work.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      We don't have much time. Let's get to work piling up those sandbags.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      • 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, 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.

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

   3. Something on which effort is expended.

      There's lots of work waiting for me at the office.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      2. (euphemisticCategory:English euphemisms#WORK) Cosmetic surgery.

         has had a lot of work doneCategory:English terms with collocations#WORK

         • 2025 May 20, Marina Hyde, “Was this a hen do or a humanitarian mission to liberate Paris? Either way, give Lauren Sánchez an award”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

           Luckily, our eyes have grown accustomed after decades of Botox, fillers and extreme “work” going mainstream, so we don’t notice the weirdness and read it instead as maximum hotness. Thank you, progress!

           Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

      3. (prison slangCategory:English prison slang#WORK) Prison gang violence.

         putting in workCategory:English terms with collocations#WORK

   5. (physicsCategory:en:Physics#WORK) 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.

      Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   6. (physicsCategory:en:Physics#WORK, more generally) A measure of energy that is usefully extracted from a process: applied productively.
      • 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist:

        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.

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

3. Product; the result of effort.
   1. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#WORK, often in combination) The result of a particular manner of production.

      There's a lot of guesswork involved.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   2. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#WORK, 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.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   3. (countableCategory:English countable nouns#WORK) A literary, artistic, or intellectual production; a creative work.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:creative work

      It is a work of art.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      the poetic works of Alexander PopeCategory:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      • 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:

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

      • 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:

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

      • 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? […] ”

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

   4. (countableCategory:English countable nouns#WORK) A fortification.

      William the Conqueror fortified many castles, throwing up new ramparts, bastions and all manner of works.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

4. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#WORK, slangCategory:English slang#WORK, professional wrestlingCategory:en:Professional wrestling#WORK) The staging of events to appear as real.
5. (miningCategory:en:Mining#WORK) Ore before it is dressed.^[1]
6. (slangCategory:English slang#WORK, plural onlyCategory:English pluralia tantum#WORK) The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.)

   Tell me you're using clean works at least.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   • 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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

   • 1996, Paul Harding Douglas with Laura Pinsky, The Essential AIDS Fact Book, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 25:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

   • 2009, Gillian G. Gaar, The Rough Guide to Nirvana‎, Rough Guides UK, →ISBN:

     While in San Francisco, where the AIDS crisis was particularly devastating, they saw numerous public awareness signs reading “Bleach Your Works” posted around the city, urging IV drug users to clean their needles with bleach to help staunch the spread of the disease.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

7. (LGBTQ slangCategory:English LGBTQ slang#WORK) The confident attitude of a drag queen.
   • 2018 April 17, madison moore, Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 27:

     All told, werk is about creativity, virtuosity, and a certain kind of mastery.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

   • 2022 January 25, Monique Jenkinson, Faux Queen: A Life in Drag, Bywater Books, →ISBN:

     If the voice coming out of my body is legibly male, it complicates my presence. The work starts to approach that mysterious state of werq.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

See also

• (product (combining form)): -ing

Verb

work (third-person singular simple present works, present participle working, simple past and past participle worked or (rare, archaic) wrought)Category:English lemmas#WORKCategory:English verbs#WORKCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WORKCategory:Pages with entries#WORKCategory:Pages with 3 entries#WORK

1. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#WORK) To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.

   He's working in a bar.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   • 2018 December 6, Matt Falcus, “16 new airports and terminals we can’t wait to fly into”, in CNN‎, archived from the original on 25 April 2025:

     The world’s favorite airport and Asian mega-hub, Singapore Changi, is eagerly working towards opening its new Jewel and Terminal 5.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

   1. Said of one's workplace (building), or one's department, or one's trade (sphere of business) [with in or at].

      I work in a national park.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      She works in the human resources department.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      He mostly works in logging but sometimes works in carpentry too.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   2. Said of one's job title [with as].
      • 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.

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

      I work as a cleaner.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   3. Said of a company or individual who employs [with for].

      She works for Microsoft.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      He works for the President.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   4. General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients [with with].

      I work closely with my Canadian counterparts.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      You work with computers, right?Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      She works with the homeless people from the suburbs.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   5. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#WORK) To work or operate in a certain place, area, or speciality.

      She works the night clubs.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      The salesman works the Midwest.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   6. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#WORK) To work or operate in, through, or by means of.

      She's working the phones.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

2. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#WORK) To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for.

   He pointed at the car and asked, "Does it work"?Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   He looked at the bottle of pain pills, wondering if they would work.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   My plan didn't work.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎, volume 189, number 2, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 8 June 2023, 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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

   • 2025 October 15, 'Mystery Shopper', “About Anglia... and high scores”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 54:

     Once again, the WiFi isn't willing to work. When the guard comes to check tickets, I ask him if it ever works. He rolls his eyes and tells me it rarely does. He says I'll be lucky if I get it to connect. I give up trying.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#WORK) To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen.
   1. To set into action.

      He worked the levers.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   3. To exhaust, by working.

      The mine was worked until the last scrap of ore had been extracted.

      Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      • 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.

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

        Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   4. To shape, form, or improve a material.

      He used pliers to work the wire into shape.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   5. To provoke or excite; to influence.

      The rock musician worked the crowd of young girls into a frenzy.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      • 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 17:

        "Still, boozers can be worked sometimes. Most people can, if you encourage their kink. One old woman staked me for three months because she got such a kick out of scandalmongering the neighbours to me."

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

   6. To use or manipulate to one’s advantage.

      She knows how to work the system.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   7. (lawCategory:en:Law#WORK) To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.

      I cannot work a miracle.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      • 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.

        Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

        Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   8. To force to work.

      He is working his servants hard.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

4. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#WORK) To move or progress slowly or with difficulty; to proceed with effort.

   to work into the earthCategory:English terms with collocations#WORK

   • 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 79:

     We worked back again and picked up our intended route, but we did not find the clear run I had hoped for.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

   1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#WORK) To move or progress slowly [with one's way].

      He worked his way through the crowd.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

      The dye worked its way through.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

5. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#WORK) To cause to move slowly or with difficulty.

   Using some tweezers, she worked the bee sting out of her hand.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

   • 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, / […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

6. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#WORK) To embroider with thread.
7. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#WORK) To ferment.
8. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#WORK) To cause 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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

9. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#WORK, figuratively) To influence.

   They worked on her to join the group.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

10. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#WORK) To move in an agitated manner.

    His fingers worked with tension.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

    A ship works in a heavy sea.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

    • 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.

      Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

11. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#WORK) To behave in a certain way when handled

    This dough does not work easily.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

    The soft metal works well.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

12. (ditransitiveCategory:English ditransitive verbs#WORK, poeticCategory:English poetic terms#WORK) 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!”

      Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

    • 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."

      Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

13. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#WORK, intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#WORK) 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—’

      Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

      Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
14. (slangCategory:English slang#WORK, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#WORK) 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.Category:English terms with usage examples#WORK

15. (LGBTQ slangCategory:English LGBTQ slang#WORK, intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#WORK) To perform with a confident attitude, particularly as a drag queen.
    • 2020 November 9, Shae Connor, Rough and Tumble, Entangled: Embrace, →ISBN:

      Plus, all that gym work means you've got muscles for days. You gotta werk it, babe." She puts a swish and swing into her next few steps before she bursts out laughing, and I have to join in.

      Category:English terms with quotations#WORK

    • 2022 February 1, Lindsay Bryde, Tommy Mayberry, RuPedagogies of Realness: Essays on Teaching and Learning with RuPaul's Drag Race, McFarland, →ISBN, page 41:

      Today, almost three decades later, the sentence, "You better work" from the song is used on a daily basis.

      Category:English terms with quotations#WORK