Worked

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Work \Work\ (w[^u]rk), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Worked} (w[^u]rkt),
     or {Wrought} (r[add]t); 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.]


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     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.
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              O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,
              To match thy goodness?                --Shak.
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              Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw
              be given you.                         --Ex. v. 18.
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              Whether we work or play, or sleep or wake,
              Our life doth pass.                   --Sir J.
                                                    Davies.
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     2. Hence, in a general sense, to operate; to act; to perform;
        as, a machine works well.
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              We bend to that the working of the heart. --Shak.
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     3. Hence, figuratively, to be effective; to have effect or
        influence; to conduce.
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              We know that all things work together for good to
              them that love God.                   --Rom. viii.
                                                    28.
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              This so wrought upon the child, that afterwards he
              desired to be taught.                 --Locke.
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              She marveled how she could ever have been wrought
              upon to marry him.                    --Hawthorne.
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     4. To carry on business; to be engaged or employed
        customarily; to perform the part of a laborer; to labor;
        to toil.
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              They that work in fine flax . . . shall be
              confounded.                           --Isa. xix. 9.
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     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.
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              Confused with working sands and rolling waves.
                                                    --Addison.
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     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.
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              Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
              Proportioned to each kind.            --Milton.
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     7. To ferment, as a liquid.
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              The working of beer when the barm is put in.
                                                    --Bacon.
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     8. To act or operate on the stomach and bowels, as a
        cathartic.
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              Purges . . . work best, that is, cause the blood so
              to do, . . . in warm weather or in a warm room.
                                                    --Grew.
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     {To work at}, to be engaged in or upon; to be employed in.
  
     {To work to windward} (Naut.), to sail or ply against the
        wind; to tack to windward. --Mar. Dict.
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