catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  Work \Work\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Worked, or Wrought; p. pr.
     & vb. n. Working.] [AS. wyrcean (imp. worthe, wrohte, p. p.
     geworht, gewroht); akin to OFries. werka, wirka, OS. wirkian,
     D. werken, G. wirken, Icel. verka, yrkja, orka, Goth.
     wa['u]rkjan. [root]145. See Work, n.]
     1. To exert one's self for a purpose; to put forth effort for
        the attainment of an object; to labor; to be engaged in
        the performance of a task, a duty, or the like.
  
              O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work, To
              match thy goodness?                   --Shak.
  
              Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw
              be given you.                         --Ex. v. 18.
  
              Whether we work or play, or sleep or wake, Our life
              doth pass.                            --Sir J.
                                                    Davies.
  
     2. Hence, in a general sense, to operate; to act; to perform;
        as, a machine works well.
  
              We bend to that the working of the heart. --Shak.
  
     3. Hence, figuratively, to be effective; to have effect or
        influence; to conduce.
  
              We know that all things work together for good to
              them that love God.                   --Rom. viii.
                                                    28.
  
              This so wrought upon the child, that afterwards he
              desired to be taught.                 --Locke.
  
              She marveled how she could ever have been wrought
              upon to marry him.                    --Hawthorne.
  
     4. To carry on business; to be engaged or employed
        customarily; to perform the part of a laborer; to labor;
        to toil.
  
              They that work in fine flax . . . shall be
              confounded.                           --Isa. xix. 9.
  
     5. To be in a state of severe exertion, or as if in such a
        state; to be tossed or agitated; to move heavily; to
        strain; to labor; as, a ship works in a heavy sea.
  
              Confused with working sands and rolling waves.
                                                    --Addison.
  
     6. To make one's way slowly and with difficulty; to move or
        penetrate laboriously; to proceed with effort; -- with a
        following preposition, as down, out, into, up, through,
        and the like; as, scheme works out by degrees; to work
        into the earth.
  
              Till body up to spirit work, in bounds Proportioned
              to each kind.                         --Milton.
  
     7. To ferment, as a liquid.
  
              The working of beer when the barm is put in.
                                                    --Bacon.
  
     8. To act or operate on the stomach and bowels, as a
        cathartic.
  
              Purges . . . work best, that is, cause the blood so
              to do, . . . in warm weather or in a warm room.
                                                    --Grew.

  Working \Work"ing\,
     a & n. from Work.
  
           The word must cousin be to the working.  --Chaucer.
  
     Working beam. See Beam, n. 10.
  
     Working class, the class of people who are engaged in
        manual labor, or are dependent upon it for support;
        laborers; operatives; -- chiefly used in the plural.
  
     Working day. See under Day, n.
  
     Working drawing, a drawing, as of the whole or part of a
        structure, machine, etc., made to a scale, and intended to
        be followed by the workmen. Working drawings are either
        general or detail drawings.
  
     Working house, a house where work is performed; a
        workhouse.
  
     Working point (Mach.), that part of a machine at which the
        effect required; the point where the useful work is done.