Word: work Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English werken and worchen, from Old English wyrċan and wircan (Mercian), from Proto-Germanic *wurkijaną (“to work”), from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥ǵyéti (“to be working, to be at work”), from the root *werǵ-. 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). Pronunciation: /wɜː(ɹ)k/, /wɜːk/, [wəːk], [wœːk], [wɔːk] 1. To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers. Labels: intransitive Example: He's working in a bar. Example: The world’s favorite airport and Asian mega-hub, Singapore Changi, is eagerly working towards opening its new Jewel and Terminal 5. 2. To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers. Labels: intransitive Example: I work in a national park. Example: She works in the human resources department. 3. To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers. Labels: intransitive Example: 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. Example: I work as a cleaner. 4. To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers. Labels: intransitive Example: She works for Microsoft. Example: He works for the President. 5. To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers. Labels: intransitive Example: I work closely with my Canadian counterparts. Example: You work with computers, right? 6. To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers. Labels: intransitive, transitive Example: She works the night clubs. Example: The salesman works the Midwest. 7. To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers. Labels: intransitive, transitive Example: She's working the phones. 8. To be operative in a specified way. Labels: intransitive Example: This dough does not work easily. Example: The soft metal works well. 9. To be operative in a specified way. Labels: intransitive Example: He pointed at the car and asked, "Does it work"? Example: He looked at the bottle of pain pills, wondering if they would work. 10. To be operative in a specified way. Labels: intransitive Example: The chef's steak frites just didn't work for me. Example: That shirt doesn't work on her. 11. To be operative in a specified way. Labels: ditransitive, intransitive, poetic Example: 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!” Example: 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." 12. To be operative in a specified way. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: ‘I wolde hit were so,’ seyde the Kynge, ‘but I may nat stonde, my hede worchys so—’ 13. To be operative in a specified way. Labels: intransitive, slang, transitive Example: I would have never thought those pieces would go together, but she is working it like nobody's business. 14. To be operative in a specified way. Labels: intransitive Example: 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. Example: Today, almost three decades later, the sentence, "You better work" from the song is used on a daily basis. 15. To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen. Labels: transitive Example: He worked the levers. 16. To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen. Labels: transitive Example: The mine was worked until the last scrap of ore had been extracted. Example: 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. 17. To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen. Labels: transitive Example: He used pliers to work the wire into shape. 18. To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen. Labels: transitive Example: The rock musician worked the crowd of young girls into a frenzy. Example: "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." 19. To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen. Labels: transitive Example: She knows how to work the system. 20. To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen. Labels: transitive Example: I cannot work a miracle. Example: 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. 21. To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen. Labels: transitive Example: He is working his servants hard. 22. To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen. Labels: figuratively, intransitive, transitive Example: They worked on her to join the group. 23. To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen. Labels: transitive Example: He worked that basketball like a boss! 24. To continue laboriously. Labels: intransitive Example: to work into the earth Example: We worked back again and picked up our intended route, but we did not find the clear run I had hoped for. 25. To continue laboriously. Labels: transitive Example: He worked his way through the crowd. Example: The dye worked its way through. 26. To continue laboriously. Labels: transitive Example: Using some tweezers, she worked the bee sting out of her hand. Example: 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, / […] 27. To continue laboriously. Labels: intransitive Example: His fingers worked with tension. Example: A ship works in a heavy sea. 28. To ferment (produce alcohol from sugars). Labels: intransitive 29. To ferment (produce alcohol from sugars). Labels: transitive Example: 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. 30. To embroider with thread. Labels: transitive